


Different choices

by Old_plant_tea



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon Rewrite, F/F, F/M, Good Draco Malfoy, M/M, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:16:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 42,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27684803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Old_plant_tea/pseuds/Old_plant_tea
Summary: Narcissa decided that she had enough, her son will not become a pawn in her husband and his Master's game. With one letter she changed the outcome of the entire war. She chose her son's life and his happiness, even if she won't be able to see him ever again.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 149
Kudos: 287





	1. Choice that Changed Everything

**Author's Note:**

> This is the fic that some of you were waiting for! I hope that y'all will like it!  
> Also, I have dyslexia so if you see any major mistake then let me know and I will fix it.  
> I will try to upload this fic one a week, but I have a lot of work connected with my studies as well as my normal job so the schedule may be a little wonky.

Sirius once again took the tears stained letter in his hands. A small movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention for a moment. A bundle, which he carefully placed on his couch started to move. He unfolded the parchment and began to read the letter once again.

_ Dear Cousin, _

_ I am aware of the fact that you have no reason to trust me. I also realise that you may see this letter as a tool of deception. You may think that I want to ensure that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wins, but the truth is far from this. You see recently I gave birth to my one and only son. He is the single, most important thing in my life, and I will not allow him to grow up in a world full of darkness. I stayed loyal to my husband for far too long, I cannot fix all my mistakes, and I am not looking for forgiveness. Lucius wants to promise my son to The Dark Lord as proof of his loyalty, he wants to give an innocent child to this monster, and I will not allow it.  _

_ I write this letter because I need your help. My son name is Draco, and please realise that he has nothing to do with the sins of his father or mine. I don't have much time, therefore; I will get straight to the point. You have a 'rat', in more than one meaning of the word, on your side. He betrayed you, and The Dark Lord knows where the Potters are, from what I gathered they are planning to attack today on Hallowe’en night. I am sorry that I inform you this late, but I only just persuaded Lucius to tell me where he is going, I am also sorry that I cannot directly say who the spy is, but there are spells in place that make it impossible. I am aware that you may think that I want to deice you, but please believe that I would do anything for my son. _

_ As I give you this information, I must also ask you to take care of Draco for me. They will know what I did, and I am aware that I will not see the end of this war. I refuse to leave him in this wretched place under Lucius rule. If you don't want to take care of him, please find him a family that will, although I would much prefer it if you were the one to do it. I swear I want the war to end just as much as you do and I want my son to live not as a puppet-like his father, but as a free individual like you. Please if you won't take care of him from the kindness of your heart do it because you own me now. _

_ I trust you know what to do with your 'rat' friend, and please don't let my baby suffer. His birthday is on the 5th of June he is all I have Sirius. Take care of your family Sirius and do not let them down like I did mine. _

_ Yours sincerely, _

_ Narcissa Malfoy nee Black _

_ Ps. I also send Draco’s favourite toy. The child cannot fall asleep without it. His second name was supposed to be Lucius as the tradition states, but I managed to change it to Regulus, your brother chose your side. _

Once again he folded the letter and started at the door of his London apartment. He hadn't spoken with Narcissa for years, and now in the middle of the war, she hadn't only sent him a message, but also a child. He stood up and slowly approached the baby, the boy or Draco like Narcissa called him in her letter was peacefully sleeping, a stuffed red and green dragon was next to him, Sirius almost smiled at the image. He didn't know what to do, he had no experience with babies, and there was the ‘rat’ problem. In her letter, Narcissa insinuated that their friend, one of the Marauders was a traitor. The Order knew that someone betrayed them, the Death Eaters knew too much, but they could never have guessed that it was Peter, a quiet kid that always trailed after them, their friend.

If Narcissa's letter was to be trusted the attack on James and his family was going to happen in a few hours. Quickly Sirius ran out of the room he needed to find the two-way mirror, that they had. It took him 20 minutes to locate it, and he prayed to whoever was listening for it to not be too late.

“James Potter!” for a moment nothing happened, and his heart stilled, then James’ mop oh hair appeared in the mirror and Sirius quickly breathe a sigh of relieve.

“Pad, what’s going on, we agreed on no communication.” James sounded sleepy, and Sirius almost smiled, but then he remembered the letter.

“James, do you trust me?” He held his breath as James’ expression changed into something more aware.

“Of course, I trust you. What’s going on?”

“I need you to take Lily and Harry here.” James looked confused, but by the shake of the mirror, he gathered that his brother stood up.

“Pad, what’s going on?” James’ voice was hard, but Sirius could hear the slight panic.

“I promise to tell you everything when you get here we don’t have much time. Please, James.” His friend looked at him for a moment then nodded.

James didn’t end the connection, and Sirius could hear as he called for Lily and told her to wake Harry up. From the position of the mirror, he could see as James put a few of Harry’s things into a bag and took a hold of his wand. The Sirius heard a loud crash that probably came from the outside, James called for Lily, and she quickly ran down the stairs with Harry in her arms, the baby was crying. Just as James ran to Lily, the doors of their house flew and hit the wall opposite them. Sirius almost scream as he watched a green light making its way to Lily and Harry, he watched as James threw a shield charm just as Lily covered Harry with her body. There was an explosion of light and Sirius couldn’t see anything, then he heard a loud crack in his living room and a crying baby.

Quickly he ran to the living room James was holding Lily and Harry in his arms, Sirius could see from the way that James held Lily’s body that she was unconscious. He ran to his friends and took Lily from James’ arms the man didn’t protest only stared at his unresponsive wife. Thanks to his upbringing, Sirius knew what he needs to do, and quickly he checked Lily’s pulse and breathe a sigh of relief when he could feel it.

“James she’s alive.” This broke the spell that overtook his friend quickly he kneeled next to his wife. “I need to check her vitals, call St. Mungo’s and ask for Aline.” When his friend didn’t move, Sirius shouted. “Now, James!” This done the trick and James quickly ran towards the fireplace.

Sirius quickly checked the Lily’s for any damage, but when he didn’t found anything he settled for monitoring her and hoping that Alice will be here soon. After 5 minutes James came back, Harry was still firmly planted in his arms, the boy was crying, but at this moment Sirius knew that Lily was the most important, Alice was behind him and without a word kneeled next to Lily and started to do her magic. Sirius stood up and came closer to James.

“Is Harry okay?” James looked at him with unseeing eyes, then shook his head and peeled his child away from himself. Sirius came around and noticed that the boy had a scar that looked like a lightning bolt on his forehead. “What is this?” James was about to answer when a new voice joined the crying child. “Shit.” Quickly Sirius made his way to the couch and took his crying cousin into his arms. The boy quickly calmed down, and Sirius wondered for a moment how it was possible.

“Sirius, why the fuck, do you have a baby and what’s going on?” Sirius cringed at James’ voice, it was raw and still so broken.

Before Sirius could answer, Alice stood up and addressed both of them. “Lily is fine. Her magic core is exhausted probably because she used a very powerful non-verbal magic. She needs to rest, so I recommend moving her to the bedroom.” After a moment she moved towards James, now let me look at Harry.” He watched as James place his crying son in Alice’s hands, the witch did a few wand movements, and Harry stopped crying. “He's fine, but the wound that his forehead already turned into a scar, it was probably caused by a magic explosion, you don’t have to worry.”

After a moment of silence, Sirius looked at James. “We need to inform Moony and Dumbledore. Tell them to come here.” James looked back and furrowed his brows.

“What about Peter?” Sirius never wanted to hear that name again, the filthy traitor.

“Peter was the traitor James he sold you out.” A realisation dawned on his friend.

“The Fidelius, how do you know?”

“Later, James. Alice, tell Frank to take Neville and come here, we need to regroup.” He watched as Alice quickly went to the fireplace, after a moment he quickly cast a Patronus. “Go to Dumbledore tell him to come here and to inform Remus that his assignment is over.” He watched as the Patronus nodded and disappeared. He turned to James. “Come on we need to move Lily to the bedroom.” Without another word, James placed his now quiet son on the floor and helped him move Lily. When they returned Sirius noticed that Draco once again fell asleep, once again today he wondered if Narcissa put some sort of spell on the baby so that he would be sleepier today.

After 5 minutes, Alice came back with Frank and a small baby that he held in his arms. Sirius wondered what will happen now, he knew how they would react to the letter that he received and the baby, but honestly thanks to it his family was alright, and that was enough for him to forgive Narcissa.

Dumbledore arrived in his living room with a loud pop, which startled the three babies, quickly Sirius picked up Draco and started to slowly bounced him, the effect was momentary, and this confirmed his theory that Narcissa gave him something to be calmer. When he looked up from the once again sleeping baby, all eyes in the room were on him. He noticed that James stared at the little boy in his hands, and he put him down.

“Hello everyone, I believe we have a lot to discuss.” Dumbledore’s expression was unreadable, but his voice betrayed the curiosity of the old man.

Sirius quickly tried to calm his rapidly beating heart, his hands were shaking, and he wished for Moony to be here. “Where is Remus?’ Sirius was aware that his tone was, as his mother would call it, disrespectful, but he had little patience for Dumbledore’s antics.

The grey wizard merely looked at him before answering. “I am afraid my message did not reach him yet.” Somehow he didn’t believe the old wizard, but this time he decided to keep quiet.

“Pads explain what’s going on.” He turned to his best friend, who was still holding his son.

“I’ve received a letter from Narcissa Malfoy, in which she informed me about a ‘rat’ that resides in our ranges as well as the plan to attack you. The letter is on the counter you can read it.” He watched as the people that gathered in his flat moved to the kitchen area, and one by one read the letter.

“Peter?” The shock in Alice’s voice was real, and Sirius couldn’t blame her.

“We switched. I was supposed to be the secret keeper, but Peter convinced me that it was too obvious because of my relationship with James and that perhaps someone less visible was more suitable. I spoke with James and Lily about it, and all three of us agreed that it was a good idea. I never suspected that he would betray us, but I have no doubts that although the letter does not state directly that he is the spy, it’s pretty obvious that he is one. Besides, his animagus form is a rat, so the line about more than one meaning of the word fits.” When he finished all the present people started to nod, Sirius tried to catch James’ eyes, but his friend kept them firmly on Harry.

Dumbledore’s voice startled him, from his trance, he looked at the old wizard and listed. “I will inform the rest of the Order of Peter’s betrayal.” He watched as the man’s face changed, and for a moment he held his breath. “I also have some news. It appears that whatever happened today at your house caused Voldemort’s demise. My spies on his side inform me that half an hour ago the Dark Mark that branded them started to burn, and them fade. I don’t want to believe that defeating him was so easy, but it would appear that he is dead.” At this, the whole room breathed a sigh of relief. “I wouldn’t relax so easily, The Death Eaters are still at large and they can still bring death and suffering with them.” The whole room sobered at the mention of Death Eaters, Sirius hated that they still had to fight. “Now we shall apprehend Mr Pettigrew, and it would seem that one Lucius Malfoy also can be arrested.” Subconsciously Sirius moved towards the blond baby who still slept peacefully on the couch.

“And what about his wife?” At the mention of Narcissa his heart stilled, he didn’t even know who asked the question, but he wanted to punch that person.

“She’s dead.” For the third time this evening, everyone looked at him.

“What do you mean, Sirius?” It was Frank who asked the question, and if the man wasn’t holding a baby, he would be on the floor now.

Instead of punching the man, Sirius took a deep breath and calmed himself. “Narcissa betrayed her husband and the Death Eaters, and if she isn’t dead by now, she will be soon.” He turned around and looked at his cousin the baby would never meet her the only thing he will know about his mother is what others will decide to tell him.

“At least if he resists arrest we can use the boy?” He couldn’t believe the words that just left James’, his brother, mouth.

“What do you mean?” He could feel his voice turning cold and his expression morphing into a nasty look that was usually seen only by his enemies.

James didn’t even notice the change. “Oh, come on Pads, you know what I mean. The latter clearly states that Lucius all but promise the brat to Voldemort, we can use the mini Death Eater as leverage if his father resists arrest or denies his ties with Bastard.” Sirius’ blood ran cold, he took one step towards the baby and quickly took it into his arms, remembering about the plush toy.

He turned to his best friend and gave him the coldest stare that he could muster. “He is just a baby, James. He is not a mini Death Eater or Voldemort’s puppet, and most importantly he is not Lucius Malfoy. The fact that he was born a Malfoy does not mean that he is evil or did you forgot that I am a Black, and don’t give me the whole you are different bullshit. I lived through it, and the family you are born into doesn’t define your actions. The boy stays with me, and he is not going to anyone’s puppet, not yours, not Dumbledore’s, and for sure not his fathers!” At the end of his rant, Sirius was breathless. He watched as James’s face closed off, and then the unthinkable happened.

“So what are you suddenly supporting your family? If yes then what are we, Lily could have died today!” 

“She didn’t because my cousin couldn’t stand the bullshit that my family implemented on her from birth. And what are you even talking about, you, Lily, Harry and Remus are my family.” He was breathing hard, James still held Harry in his arm, but Sirius could see as Alice was slowly making her way to get the baby away from his furious father.

“Are we because it seems to me that you are protecting a Death Eater now!” Sirius looked at the sleeping baby, then at his now-former best friend, and suddenly all his anger disappeared and he no longer felt anything.

When he next spoke, his voice was ice cold. “If this is what you think of an innocent baby, I don’t want to know what you think of me.” Slowly without looking at anyone, he made his way towards the door of the flat.

He stilled when he felt someone’s hand on his left wrist. “Sirius?” Alice’s voice was small and frighten, internally he cursed himself for forgetting that they are not alone.

“I’m leaving, the flat is paid till January, you can stay here. I will come for my things tomorrow at noon.” With that, he stepped outside of his flat.

For the first time since Sirius remembered he was alone, truly alone. He didn’t know where to go and what to do, Draco was still asleep, and he dreaded the moment that the spell would wear off. 

After walking for about half an hour, Sirius stumbled onto a small neighbourhood of semi-detached houses. An idea formed in his mind, he was the last Black, and he knew where to go. With a loud pop he appeared on the doorsteps of his childhood house, he clearly remembers saying that he will never stand in this place again, but he was desperate.

As soon as he crossed the entry of house a familiar smell, that made him want to run as far from the place as he could, assaulted him. He, however, was not prepared for the screaming that came a moment later, it sounded like his mother, but that wasn’t possible. He knew that Walburga was dead, he got a letter from Gringotts that informed him that this wench of a woman left him nothing. Then a loud pop sounded, and Kreacher appeared, his face was drawn in a nasty look that sent shivers down Sirius’ back.

“You are not welcome here!” Quickly he moved out of Kreacher's grasp.

“Kreacher stop!” He watched as the elf froze in place, shock clearly visible on his face. “How do I shut her up?” He could see that the house-elf fought with himself not to answer, but the need to answer his master soon won.

“You need to cover mistress’ portrait.” Without waiting for the insult that would most likely follow the sentence, Sirius moved through the hall and came face to face with his count of a mother.

“You are not welcome here! Get out you, abomination! No good…” Quickly he put Draco down and covered the painting with his jacket and used a protective charm so that it wouldn’t fall.

As soon as the house fall quieted, the happenings of the day caught up with him. Sirius couldn’t keep his tears in anymore, he not only lost the only family he had left but when James called Draco a mini Death Eater, Sirius began to wonder if his supposed brother also branded his as one when they first met.

Sirius could see with his blurry vision that Kreacher appeared next to him. “What is you filthy blood traitor want?” He didn’t have enough strength to fight with the elf.

Slowly he stood up and took Draco in his hands once again. “Kreacher this is Narcissa’s son.” He watched as Kreacher’s face smoothed. “His name was Draco Regulus Malfoy, but he is a Black now. She asked me to take care of him, and I’m going to do it, but I need your help. And if you aren’t going to do it for me, do it for Regulus.” The house-elf took a step towards the baby and Sirius subconsciously wrap his hand tighter around the small boy.

“The baby is miss ‘cissy? What happened to her?” Sirius knew that he didn’t imagine the wonder on Kreacher’s face.

“Yes Kreacher he is Narcissa’s son, and I’m afraid that she is dead because she defined Voldemort ad the way she was brought up.” Sirius waited for the house-elf to start shouting profanities at him, but after a moment of silence, he turned and found that Kreacher’s eyes filled with tears, that slowly started to make their way down his face.

“She did what Master Regulus did.” His voice sounded strange because of the tears, but Sirius understood him clearly.

His brother defined the Bastard that was supposed to be his master, and that’s why he died. Sirius’s heart broke, all this time he thought that his brother died during some Death Eater attack that went wrong, all this time he thought, that his brother was rotten and evil like all the bastards that hid their faces under the hood, but maybe that wasn’t the case.

“Kreacher I need you to tell me how Regulus died, please.” Upon seeing that the creature started to fidget, he knew what he has to do. “Kreacher tell me what happened to my brother this is an order.” The house-elf just looked at him for a moment then nodded and wiped his eyes using the bottom of his pillowcase.

“Master Regulus was always good to Kreacher, always good. The man with a snake asked for a house-elf of mister Regulus, and mister Regulus volunteered Kreacher, but he ordered Kreacher to come home after the task was done.” The house-elf once again wiped his eyes, Sirius couldn’t imagine what the Bastard has asked of him, but he was sure that it was nothing good. “The bad man took Kreacher to a cave and told him to drink, so Kreacher did, but the liquid was poisoned, then he put something into the crystal. Kreacher was sick and thirsty, but the man left, and Kreacher needed to get back to Master Regulus, so Kreacher apparated, and aster Regulus took care of Kreacher, yes he did.” The elf paused once again to compose himself a little. “Master Regulus asked Kreacher to tell him what happened, them he ordered Kreacher to take him to the cave, and Master Regulus wouldn’t let Kreacher drink the liquid.” The house-elf burst out crying and Sirius felt as his own tears made their way down his face. Without thinking, he moved Draco to his left and enveloped the crying creature in a hug, he expected that the house-elf would fight him, but instead, he continued the story with tears stained face. “Master Regulus told Kreacher to replace the necklace and destroy it, but he didn’t let Kreacher take him home, the master was thirsty, and he tried to drink from the lake, but Inferi came and before Kreacher could do something they dragged master into the water. Master told Kreacher to never tell what happened. Kreacher tried to destroy the necklace, but nothing works. Kreacher tried fire, potion, elf-magic, but he couldn’t complete the order.” Sirius only nodded, he still held the elf that’s to which he understood Narcissa’s words in the letter.

“Thank you, Kreacher. I release you from my brother’s order. I will destroy it for him your order, is completed.” He could feel as the house-elf nodded. Sirius moved away from him and watched as Kreacher disappeared and appeared again holding a green locket.

Carefully he took it, and he almost dropped it immediately, the dark magic was oozing out of the thing. Destroying it will be hard, but Sirius knew that he needs to be the one to do in for his brother and Kreacher. Slowly he picked himself up from the floor and moved towards the stair. After taking one step upstairs, he paused and looked at Kreacher. 

“Do we have a place where Draco can sleep?” The house-elf looked a little stunned at being addressed this way, but Sirius was not going to order the creature around. The elf was either going to do it or not he wasn’t going to put him through hell as his mother did.

“Yes, there is a baby room on the second floor.” Sirius smiled at the words.

“Wonderful, thank you, Kreacher. Come on little one we are going to sleep.” He was once again about to take a steep upstairs when he remembered. “Oh, right. Would you be so kind, and find whatever baby things we have in the house?”

Once again the elf looked perplexed, and Sirius really didn’t blame him. “Yes, Kreacher will find things for young mister Draco.”

“Wonderful, you are ace Kreacher. I will see you tomorrow.” Without waiting for a reply, he made his way to the second floor.

After checking three different doors, he finally found the baby room. In the middle of it stood a big crib that could probably fit five children at once, but Sirius wouldn’t be complaining. The room had no other furniture besides the crib, so he accepted the fact that he will spend the night on the floor when suddenly a small bed appeared in the room with a loud pop. Quickly he looked towards the door and found Kreacher standing there and looking at him. Sirius’ smile grew.

“Thank you, Kreacher. You may retire as well.” The elf nodded eyeing him curiously. “If you want, you can ever sleep here and keep an eye on the baby.” Sirius smiled once again when without saying anything the elf snapped his finger, making a small bed appear in the corner of the room. He watched as Kreacher slowly made his way towards the bed, his face bowed as if he expected to be hit. Sirius didn’t blame him for it, he remembers living in this house and doing the exact same thing.

Carefully he piled the boy from his chest and put him into the crib and placed the stuffed animal next to the baby. “Sleep well, Draco. I imagine tomorrow you will be a little nightmare and I already feel sorry for Kreacher and I.” 

Without taking his clothes off, Sirius lowered himself onto his bed. Slowly he let the happenings of the day wash over him, the letter, the baby, his fight with James, not being able to see Moony, he let all of it wash over him. He could feel the tears, and he fought not to let out a sob. After what felt like forever, Sirius finally could feel the exhaustion catching up with him as he fell into a fitful sleep.


	2. The Short Story of the Past Years

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI,  
> I'm glad that so many people like the first chapter of this fic! I hope that you will like this one as much as the previous or even more. Also French punks baby!  
> Have a wonderful day, wear a mask and stay healthy.  
> If you from Poland keep fighting, life is shitty right now, but don't give the assholes the satisfaction of breaking you!!

The heat from the war was still present, but Sirius knew that soon it will be better. Lucius was arrested without having to use Draco, but Sirius still didn’t forgive James for even suggesting the stupid idea. Three years ago, when he came back to his flat for the rest of his things, he found James sitting in the kitchen, Harry was asleep, and Lilly was still unconscious. He didn’t expect much, a sorry would be enough, but when the only thing that he received was a cold glare that sent shivers down his spine, Sirius quickly moved to the bedroom, packed his things and left. He planned to ask about Moony that day, but the possibility of asking James anything disappeared as soon as he entered the flat.

From that point on Sirius and Draco were on their own, Kreacher was an immense help since he didn’t know how to take care of a small child. Then after five months he finally managed to contact Andromeda, although, he didn’t agree with her on a lot of things like for example saying that all of their family was bad and that Draco will turn out like his father. Nevertheless, he was glad for her help during the hardest days. Sirius still couldn’t understand the prejudice his friends and family have towards a baby, and he hoped that sooner rather than later they will open their eyes.

Unfortunately when after almost three years, the situation didn't change Sirius knew that he would have to either change tactics or leave. A hand full of people knew who the baby was, but every time he took Draco to a wizarding community Sirius could feel nasty looks thrown their way. Some even tried to hex him, but thanks to his reflexes, Sirius managed to avoid the spell. It still surprised him that some forgot that he was one of the first wizards on the front line. Sirius could still remember the one time when he had to run some errands, after managing to persuade Andromeda to take care of Draco, he learned why people sent him the looks. When he exited from Gringotts, a tall and bulky man punched him square in the face sending him to the floor. From what Sirius gathered from the man it was a punishment. Sirius learned that the general public decided that the friendship he had with James ended because of him and since Harry was given the status of The Boy Who Lived any wrongdoings towards him or his parents was considered a crime. After that, Sirius came back to Andromeda’s, he was furious, but what he saw there made his blood run cold. Draco was in a dark room alone and crying, he quickly gathered the boy and left without saying goodbye. After that incident, he stopped talking with the woman and Kreacher always volunteers to watch Draco while Sirius did the shopping at muggle stores. These days he rarely visited the wizarding world, he preferred the calm and anonymity of muggle locations. Sirius was glad that Gringotts didn’t watch whose gold it took, the bank operated on a different set of rules, but this also meant that no transaction could be sped up with little more gold, so Sirius had to wait over a year for the bank to finalize the change of wills. A month after moving back to Grimmauld Place he found a letter that contained his brother’s will, the document clearly stated that Sirius was to be brought back as the rightful heir of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Since Walburga and Orion left Sirius with nothing, the Gringotts had to spend a lot of time on the change of wills, which would allow Sirius to have full access to The Black fortune, as well as all the properties that belonged to the family.

The last straw broke about a week ago, Sirius was in Flourish and Blotts looking for a book for Draco currently the boy was fascinated by Gnomes that appeared in the garden of Grimmauld Place, so Sirius wanted to find a book on them that would be suitable for Draco. It took him half an hour to find a book that would be suitable, but when he went to pay for it, the clerk refused to take his money and threaten to call the Aurors if he didn’t leave the store. Sirius tried to argue, but eventually gave up and found a book about animals in muggle bookstore, he bought it hoping that Draco would like it.

-

Sirius packed the last bag of clothes and walked towards the living room, where Kreacher and Draco were playing. Soon the three of them would move to the Black estate located in a small French village. Sirius didn’t want to part with Britain, but he would do anything to protect Draco and leaving was the safest option, despite their past arguments even Andromeda agreed with him on this.

Upon entering the room, he was greeted with a smiling blond baby and a house-elf who desperately tried to use his magic to smooth all the corner into which the four-year-old could run. Sirius quickly step in the way of the blond making the baby stop in front of him.

“Hello Draco, Kreacher. Are you ready?” He lowered himself and picked up the blond boy, who started to giggle.

“Mister Sirius remembered to pack the locket?” Sirius’s humour faltered slightly at the mention of the locket, but he knew that the thing is important for the house-elf.

“Yes, Kreacher. It’s in the box that contains dark magic, which still resonates from that thing. Did you pack everything you wish to take with you?” After three years the house-elf was used to Sirius’s casual mannerism and barely glanced his way.

“Kreacher has everything that he needs with him.” Sirius looked at the elf and nodded.

“Okay then let’s go. Do you mind taking the luggage?” The house-elf nodded and disappeared with a loud pop that made Draco giggle. “Are you ready Draco?” Draco was a quiet kid, so Sirius didn’t really expect any answer, but the boy looked up at him and giggled once again.

“Yes.” Sirius smiled when he heard the voice and apparated to their new home.

-

When he arrived he had to take a double-take, Sirius didn’t expect the cottage to look welcoming, it didn’t even look big, but this could be only an illusion like Grimmauld place. When he entered the place, he was greeted with a small hall that opened to a big living room, Kreacher was already standing in the middle of the room with their luggage. The elf looked pleased with their new home, Sirius was sure that the elf was here before and he made a note to ask him about the place.

Draco started to wiggle in his arms which made him put the baby on the ground. As soon as the blond’s feet hit the ground, the baby started to run all around the cottage. Quickly both Kreacher and he began to cast cushioning charms all over the place, Kreacher’s magic hit the corner of a coffee table just as Draco run into it. The blond bounced back and fell on the floor after a second of lying on the ground Draco picked himself up and continued to explore the place. Sirius feared for the child every minute, but even though the blond was all over the place, he was smart and well behaved. Sirius wasn't sure how much Draco remembered from his time at the manor, but the thought of Lucius seeing his son now, giggling and running around brought a smile on his face.

“Come on, Draco it’s time for lunch.” The boy stopped and looked at Sirius.

“Can we have pancakes?” Upon hearing Draco's request, Kreacher appeared in the kitchen and started to take out products that were placed there three days ago when the elf prepared the house for their arrival. When Draco saw what was happening, a smile made its way on his face. “Thank you, Mr house-elf.” Kreacher looked at the boy, and Sirius smiled upon seeing the house-elf smile back.

Draco still couldn’t say Kreacher’s name which didn’t really surprise Sirius since the name was difficult to pronounce and he also struggles with it when he was younger.

“Will you help me unpack your things?” He addressed the blond, who nodded and flowed him to the room that will be his.

\--

Sirius could recognise this fiery hair anywhere, Lily Potter stood at the end of the street, where they had theirs after school snack. Sirius knew that seeing his friends again was possible, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready for it. He didn’t know whether she saw them or not, and he knew that it was better to face her sooner than later. Quickly he made a decision and hoped that it was the right one.

“Draco, do you see the red-haired woman dressed in the long red bell-bottoms?” The little boy nodded, Sirius knew not to wait for an actual response. “Can you go and ask her to join us?” The blond tilted his head.

“Okay.” Draco’s voice was quiet.

Sirius knew that Draco should speak more, every specialist told him so. He hoped that now when the boy started school, his communication skills will improve. He observed as Draco slowly made his way to Lily. He watched as the boy placed a hand on her pants and gently tugged at them. Lily looked down clearly surprised, Draco pointed towards him and said something to the witch. The confusion cleared, and Lily followed the small blond boy to the table.

Sirius stood up and helped the boy back into his chair after Draco was seated once again he turned to the red-head. “Hello, Lily. How are you?” The witch clearly looked shocked at seeing Sirius again.

“Sirius, I… Have you been here for the whole time?” He looked at her curiously then shook his head.

“Been in England for 3 years, but all the hate finally got to me.” The expression on her face changed into one of confusion.

“What do you mean by all the hate. You save us.” Sirius almost laughed at the statement.

“People didn’t take well the fact that James and I had a row. It got worse with time, some thought that I was a death eater in disguise, not to mention how they treated a child, even Andromeda, but you know, it could be worse.” Sirius didn’t know why Lily’s face morphed into one of horror, surely she knew what was happening.

“What do you mean Andromeda?” Sirius looked at her, he was bewildered by the question.

A realisation downed at him. “Wait, you didn’t know.” The witch shook her head. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dump all of this on you. I thought you knew.”

Both of them were silent for a moment, then Lily took his hand and looked at him. “Sirius, what happened with Andromeda?” Sirius took a deep breath and slowly released it.

“I went to Gringotts because of the change of will, and I left Draco with her when I exited the bank some guy punched me in the face then proceeded to tell me that it was for betraying you or something like that, so I came back to get Draco and I found him alone in a room crying. I took him and decided that from now one I will stick with muggle places. At least there, no one knows who Draco is.”

“Fuck.” Sirius cringed and looked at the little boy next to him. The child was engrossed in a colouring book, Sirius exhaled and turned back to the apologetic looking witch. “Sorry. I didn’t know about any of this. I’m sorry, I woke up a week after the attack and James wasn’t talking about you and Remus didn’t know anything.” Upon hearing the name Remus, Sirius perked up.

Without waiting for another apology, he asked. “How is, Remus?”

“Remus is doing better. He misses you I can tell.” Sirius smiled a little at the sentiment.

“And how is Harry?” Harry is very lively, always running around. We recovered the broom you gave him, and he still uses it, although I think James will soon buy him a real practice one. Thank you for all the gifts you send him.” He looked up at the acknowledgement and nodded.

“Of course he is my godson, and I would never forget about his birthday.” The witch looked at the boy that was still colouring, her brows slightly furrowed.

“How is the boy?” The question didn’t seem forced, which made Sirius smile.

“At home, he’s usually hyperactive, but in public, he’s mostly quiet. I hope that he will open up more when he starts school and makes some new friends.” Lily nodded and turned to Draco.

“Can you show me what you are colouring?” The boy looked at Lily and nodded. Sirius watched as he pushed the colouring towards her. “Oh wow. Interesting use of colours.” Draco smiled at her and Sirius took a pick at the page. The picture was covered in different colours, Sirius smiled at the page.

When Sirius looked to the side, he noticed a waitress was coming towards them. “Come on little man our food is coming.” The boy looked up and quickly put his things away

“Bon appetite!” The blond all but shouted, and Sirius smiled.

After the three of them ate and Sirius was about to leave, Lily turned towards him.

“Sirius, listen I’m sorry for James and all that happened to you.” Sirius just looked at her and shook his head.

“I don’t need yours apologize. Your husband is the one that should be saying this to me, not you. If you want, we can exchange letters, just address them to me, and your owl will find me.” Lily smiled at his words and nodded.

The two of them parted, and Sirius felt lighter for the first time in five years.

\--

Sirius was running late, the people working in the French district of Gringotts needed him to sign some documents, and Sirius was not prepared for the waiting that would accompany the deed. He ran ignoring the traffic and the passers-by, Draco was probably waiting for him at the school, and he promised the boy to take him to the cinema. The 2 years of school did wonders for the boy, he spoke more freely and even managed to make friends, which made Sirius proud, even though he didn’t like the kids that Draco was friends with. Sometimes he got the feeling that even Draco didn’t like them and that the boy kept with them only because of convenience.

Sirius was also proud to say that Draco was not a complete Angel, three times in the last month Sirius washed his hair with a shampoo that contained dye, and currently, his hair looked ridiculous. Another good thing about their move to France was the fact that Kreacher was relaxing more and more which pleased Sirius, the elf no longer felt obliged to do everything. The only drawback of that was the fact that the small terror that was Draco woke him up every day before school to make breakfast, that usually consisted of pancakes or other sweets.

When Sirius finally arrived at the school, he was half an hour late, and Draco was nowhere to be found. Quickly he made his way to Draco’s teacher.

“Excuse me miss, do you happen to know where Draco is?” Sirius out his trademark smile on his face and watched as the expressionless mask that wore the woman morphed into a smile.

“Oh, Draco left with his friend, here is their address. I didn’t want to let him go without you, but he was insistent.” The worry eased a little, but Sirius still wasn’t sure whether he trusted Draco’s friends.

“Oh, no. It’s okay. Thank you for the information. It was lovely seeing you miss.” The smile on the teacher’s face grew.

“You too Mr Black. I hope to see you again soon.” Sirius just smiled at the woman and quickly left the school.

The address was written in neat handwriting, and Sirius was dreading what kind of persons were the people that currently had Draco. It took him another half an hour to find the place. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but he was sure if the neighbourhood suited the image of Draco's friends that he had in mind. The place was full of small shops and buildings that were covered in graffiti, Sirius thought that the style of the area was perfect, and he longed to stay here. Slowly he made his way towards the address and found a small record shop with a flat above it.

Immediately when he entered the shop an extremely strong smell assaulted Sirius’ nose, he couldn’t place the origin of it, but somehow it was familiar. From the inside the shop looked as cool as Sirius imagined, records were put in every possible place, and Sirius smiled. He could imagine living like this, teenage Sirius was jumping with joy. He wanted to indulge himself, but first, he needed to find Draco, quickly he walked to the register. A tall man with green Mohawk stood behind the register and Sirius immediately felt as his smile grew bigger.

“Hello, I’m Sirius, and I’m looking for Draco.” The man behind the counter looked him up and down, then smiled.

“Hello, he’s upstairs with Penelope and Jaq. I’m Russel, nice to meet you, Sirius.” The man’s voice was nice, and Sirius began to relax.

“Yeah, you too. I didn’t know that Draco has such cool friends.” He gave the man one of his better smiles that were reserved for people he liked.

“You kidding right. Jaq never stops talking about him. You would believe what Draco did today, or Dad don’t tell anyone, but Draco stole the tests from the teacher’s desk when she wasn’t looking.” Sirius was taken aback by the information.

“Wait Draco did what?” The man’s face did a funny thing.

“Oh yeah, Penelope helps them with completing them, although I imagine that Draco does most of the hard work.”

“Damn I feel like I don’t know the kid. I need to talk with him, I felt left out. Do you think that if I ask, he will tell me about the cool things?” The man, Russel, laughed and Sirius couldn’t contain his own laughter.

“You may try to persuade him with sweets, the boy is addicted to them.” Sirius laughed once again.

“Oh, mate. You wouldn’t believe how much. Every morning he wakes me up to make pancakes.”

“I can imagine. Come on, I will show you upstairs.” Sirius smiled and followed Russel as he walked through an archway behind him and up the stairs.

When they entered the flat, Sirius was happy to notice that Draco looked as relaxed as he looked when they were at home. A short boy with brown shoulder-length hair stood beside him trying to drag Draco away from a short woman with dark cropped hair. The woman, Persephone as Russel called her earlier, held a small box in her hand. Before Sirius could react, Russel’s voice filled the flat.

“What is going on?” The woman smiled at the sight of Russel and moved towards him letting go of Draco’s hand.

“I was just about to show Draco, Jacque’s baby photos.” Sirius began to laugh at the image, he remembers when James’ mother did the same to him. Immediately every eye in the room was on him, Sirius watched as Draco draw his shoulders together.

“Hi, I’m Sirius. Draco’s guardian and I have only one question. Why haven’t I met you guys before and is there going to be wine?” Sirius noticed that Draco visibly exhaled and made a quick note to remember to talk with the blond about it when they get home.

“Sirius, pleasure to meet you, we have Rose, but if you want something stronger, I’m sure that we can find something.” The smiled he received from the woman was bright and welcoming.

“Perfect, let’s get this party started.”

Sirius happily noticed that Draco was smiling and talking with Jaq about everything. After an hour the two boys excused themselves and wondered to the boy’s room, and Russel got back to the shop, leaving Sirius only with Persephone.

“Hey, I’m sorry we took him without your permission.” Persephone’s voice startled him a little, but Sirius quickly recovered.

“It’s fine. I’m glad that he has friends. I honestly was afraid that all the people he keeps with will be boring, but after learning about his adventures today, let’s just say that I have more faith.” The woman started to laugh, and soon Sirius joined her.

“I think that he was a little afraid how you would react to us.” This sobered Sirius right up.

“Yeah, I don’t know why I would never yell at the kid.” Sirius was silent for a moment, and then he remembered the late night’s talks with Kreacher. He remembered telling the house-elf that it would be better if Draco was normal, with normal boring friends and normal boring life, he didn’t know that the boy heard him, he needed to talk with Draco. “I’m gonna talk with him today.” The woman smiled at him, and they both returned to their drinks.

\--

On Draco’s ten birthday they invited Jaq and his family to their cottage for the first time. They discussed telling their friends about magic for a long time, and since Draco decided to go to Hogwarts and wanted to stay in contact with his friend, they couldn’t keep them in the dark.

Draco was buzzing with nervous energy, and Sirius was happy to note that the boy behaved more freely. After they got home two years ago, they had a long talk, during which Sirius informed Draco that he didn’t want the boy to change for anyone and that all the people that have a problem with him are ignorant and closeminded. At first, Draco was still reserved but after a month or two the boy began to open up more and Sirius was glad to notice that the ball of joy and energy was more present in public.

A loud doorbell sounded in the house, and Sirius watched as Draco ran to the doors.

“Hullo.” Hearing the ecstatic tone of Draco’s voice only made him more aware of the fact that their decision was right.

“Hello, Draco!” Sirius smiled upon hearing Russel’s voice, the last time he saw the man was a week ago and from what Draco told him Russel’s hair underwent a very radical change. “How are you today, Dragon?” Sirius assumed that Draco answered the bare minimum he could because a moment later, he saw the blond mop of hair dragging a taller boy through the living room.

The blond didn’t even look his way as he shouted. “We’re going to my room, you adults talk.”

The two adults entered the room, and Sirius had a hard time holding in his laugh. Russel’s hair was bright pink, the colour looked awful on the man.

“Yeah, yeah. It was supposed to be red, but as you can see, I look like the troll doll.” The comment made Sirius break down crying, and soon the two joined him.

After Sirius showed the two the whole house and managed to get them to sit on the couch, the hardest part of the afternoon came. Quickly he retrieved the necessary documents from the cabined and sat in a chair opposite his friends.

“Oh, I can already see that this is going to be serious. ”Persephone said half-joking, but when Sirius didn’t laugh the woman sat up straighter, even Russel stopped smiling and looked at Sirius.

“Are you guys willing to sign something without reading it first?” Sirius waited as his friends had a silent conversation, then turned to him.

“I reckon if you were a serial killer, we would already be dead, so sure” Quickly before the two changed their minds, he gave them a magical contract to sign. Sirius hated the bureaucracy, but he had to admit that the French government had some good ideas, once signed, the contract became visible, and the muggle could read what they just signed. Additionally, if the muggle betrayed the wizard’s trust, they would forget about them as well as of the existence of magic.

Sirius smiled seeing the change on his friends face when the words started to appear on the parchment. As the two read what they just signed, Sirius started to fidget. He wasn’t this nervous for a long time actually the last time he was this nervous was when Draco fell from a charmed tree and he had to take him to the hospital.

“Okay, so magic is real?” If Sirius had to be honest the two of them took it extremely well.

“Yes.”

Russel looked at him and shook his head, Sirius felt his heart speed up. “I have only two questions.” Sirius nodded and waited. “First can you turn my hair red? And second, why are you telling us now.” Sirius exhaled the breath that he didn’t know he was holding and started to laugh.

“Fucker, I was worried for a moment. First, yes I can, but I think you should learn from your mistakes, who knows maybe in a month or two everyone will be all about pink.” Russel grimace and Sirius couldn’t help laughing when Russel grimaced, the laugh only grew when after a moment Persephone joined him. When he finally composed himself enough to look at his friend without laughing, Sirius answer the second question. “And second, you know that Draco and I are moving back to London, of course, we will still visit during summer, so don’t worry, you two can’t get rid of us. Draco decided to go to the same magic school as his mother did and I’m sure that he would want to stay in contact with Jaq and wizarding society uses owls to communicate, so if you didn’t know it would be pretty weird. Just imagine receiving an owl from Draco or me.” The three adults looked at each other and started to laugh again.

“Wicked. And what about Jaq, are you going to tell him?” Persephone sounded excited, and Sirius knew that he made the right decision.

“I believe that Draco is telling him right now.” Just as he said it the two boys run to the living room. Jaq was jumping with excitement, while Draco was grinning at his best friend.

“Sirius can you show me!” The brown-haired boy all, but shouted at him.

Sirius laughed once again, stood up and retrieved his wand. With a flick of his wrist, a red and gold sparks appeared in the air. Jaq jumped up and down and started to laugh, with the corner of his eye Sirius noticed that Russel and Persephone looked at him with astonishment.

“You can do all that, and you still refuse to fix my hair?”

Sirius smiled at his friend and was about to answer him when Draco beat him to the punch. “Why would he fix your hair when you clearly wanted to look like Glimmer from She-Ra?” At Draco’s comment, the whole room busted out laughing.

\--

Draco couldn’t hold a smile from his face, today Sirius and he were going to go to Diagon Alley for his school shopping. Sirius promised that he would buy him an owl so that he could correspond with Jaq without any complications while at school. Even though he was excited and happy, Draco couldn’t help but worry, what if something happens, sure during the year they were back they spend more time in magical London, but this time more it will be more crowded.

When they arrived at the entry to Diagon, Draco felt hopeful, but his nerves didn’t entirely ease yet. Next, to him Sirius, who today decided to put his long black hair into a high bun, tried to hide his own nervousness, Draco was sure that if he didn’t spend the last 11 years with him, he would be successful.

“Okay, are you ready blondie?” He gave the man one of his glares, he hated the nickname.

“As ready as I will ever be.” He could feel the curiosity oozing out of Sirius, but when he didn’t comment on the slight waver in his voice, Draco exhaled.

He watched as Sirius took out his hand and pressed a combination of bricks. As he hit the last one, the wall started to shift opening itself to the alley.

“Okay, kid. The first wand, then you will go to Madam Malkin's for robes and I will go find you a telescope.” Draco didn’t want to leave Sirius’ side, but he knew that Sirius would only get bored while he is measured.

“Okay. Can we go and buy some book after that and maybe visit Obscurus?” Draco knew that no matter what will happen at the robe shop, buying books would make everything better.

“Sure thing, kid. Now come on to Ollivanders’.” With that Sirius grabbed his shoulder and stirred him to the wand shop.

The shop was a little dark, and Draco needed to wait a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim room. Before he could look around, a voice startled him.

“Hello, Sirius, how is your wand. And who would that be?” When Draco looked up, he noticed that a tall man with grey hair was looking at him expectantly.

“Hello, Garrick. My wand is awesome like always.” Draco watched as Sirius smiled at the man, then they both turned to him.

For a moment, Draco froze, then he remembered that nothing bad is going to happen to him. “Oh, hello. I’m Draco.” The man gave him a big smile.

“I see. Hello Draco, let’s get you a wand.” He nodded and watched as the man walked to the back of the shop.

A moment later the man came back and handed Draco a long box. “Here try it.” Draco looked at Sirius, the man did a quick move with his wand and pointed at the box. He nodded at Sirius and quickly flickered the wand. At first, nothing happened, and Draco watched as the old man rose his browns in confusion, then a small plant pot lit on fire, and immediately Draco dropped the wand.

Sirius extinguished the fire with his wand and Ollivander quickly took back the wand. “Hmmm…. Hornbeam’s not right for you.” The man quickly went back to the back of the shop and came back with two boxes. “Here try this one first.”

The wand was carved from light wood, the design was simple, and he really liked it. Immediately, when he grabbed the wand, Draco felt a jolt of electricity that made him drop the wand. “Hmmm… No, Cypress wouldn’t suit you.” The man took the wand from him and put the second box in his hand.

The wand had a graphite coloured handle that ended with two circular carvings, the rest of the wand was marron, Draco smiled seeing the simplicity of the wand. When he took it in his hand, he felt a familiar jolt of energy, but this time it didn’t hurt, it felt right.

“Yes, this one will suit you well, 10", Hawthorn, unicorn hair. Very faithful, doesn’t respond well to the Dark Arts. Sometimes, difficult to work with, but I’m sure that you will manage that. Now hawthorn is very interesting, usually chooses wizards that will face integral struggle, very prone to healing magic. The combination of hawthorn and unicorn hair is very interesting, I will await seeing what you accomplish with it, young Draco.” He smiled at the man.

“Thank you.”

After they paid Sirius lead Draco to the robes shop and gave him some money. “Here that should do it, I will meet you here later, okay?” He nodded and entered the robe shop just as Sirius started to walk towards the other shops.

“Hello?” He called out hesitantly when he noticed that no one was standing behind the counter.

A moment later, a young witch appeared, and Draco immediately straightened up. “Oh, hello. Sorry for the wait.”

Draco smiled at the woman. “It’s nothing. I’m looking for Hogwarts robes.” The woman looked at him once again and smiled as well.

“You’re a first-year?” Draco nodded in affirmation, the woman’s smile grew, and Draco began to relax. “Come on to the back, let’s get you measured.”

Draco followed the witch to a big room, upon crossing the entry, he noticed that a boy around his height stood on one of the square platforms, measuring tapes were floating around him. When Draco looked up at the boy’s face, the first thing he noticed was the messy, black curls that covered his forehead, the next, were the round spectacles that framed his face. The woman led him to the platform next to the boy and started to adjust his position.

“Hello, first-year?” Upon hearing the new voice, Draco turned. The voice belonged to the dark-haired boy, Draco smiled at him.

“Ye-yeah.” He hated how nervous he felt.

“Great, me too. Do you know what house do you want to be in?” Draco felt slightly uncomfortable having the boy’s attention, but he willed himself to relax.

“I don’t know. What house do you want to be into?” He hated the boy’s attention and would much prefer to stir the topic of the conversation on the boy, that seemed to be more comfortable with being the main source of entertainment.

“I think I will be a Gryffindor, but as far as I’m concerned anything that’s not Slytherin is good.” The boy said the word Slytherin as if it was one of the unforgivable. Draco felt as his body tensed, not only his mom was a Slytherin, but also Regulus, sure they did bad things, but Draco knew that they died on the right side of the war.

“Why don’t you want to be a Slytherin.” Draco was actually curious as to why the boy was against the house.

The boy scoffed at him, he looked angry. “Well, for starters no one good ever came out of Slytherin, and every dark wizard was from this house, so who would what to be a Slytherin.”

Draco smiled at the boy encouraging him to speak, but inside he hated every second of it. He was about to defend his mother’s house when an older witch spoke, interrupting the rant.

“You’re all set, mister Potter.” The boy smiled at the witch and hopped down from the platform.

“Thank you, Madam.” The boy turned to him, and Draco quickly relaxed the glare that appeared on his face. “See you around.”

Draco nodded at the boy. “Yeah, see you.”

When the young wizard left, with the witch that was the owner of the shop, the young shopping assistant turned to him.

“I’m sorry about that.” When Draco looked at her questioningly, the witch added. “I could feel you tense when Mr Potter mentioned Slytherin. Don’t worry, we are not all bad, I was in Slytherin, but the war still lingers in some people.” Draco smiled at her.

“It’s okay. Do you think that their opinion will ever change?” The witch looked at him curiously, and Draco felt himself blush.

“I think that the Slytherin’s need someone who will change their image.” Draco smiled and nodded at the witch.

The rest of the measuring was spent in silence. After another 10 minutes, the witch led him to the front of the shop, where he paid for his new clothes and made his way outside. It took him 5 minutes to locate Sirius, the man was standing next to a fountain next to him was a woman with red hair, that Draco vaguely recognised, and a man that looked familiar to the boy from the robe shop. Upon noticing Sirius defensive posture, Draco decided to investigate. Quickly he pulled the hood of his sweater on to cover his platinum blond hair and made his hair to the three adults. When he approached the trio, Draco knew that defensive tone of Sirius’ voice.

“You don’t even know him, James, he isn’t evil.” Sirius had his hands crossed over his chest, Draco almost forgot how uncomfortable the sigh made him.

“His father is in Azkaban Sirius; the boy was promised to the Bastard that almost killed Lily.” A realisation dawned on Draco, they were talking about him.

“James you’re out of line. You don’t even know the boy.” The red-haired woman looked at her husband disapprovingly and shook her head. “Anyway this isn’t even the reason why we approached you, Sirius. As you know, Harry’s birthday is coming soon, and we decided to have a party before he goes to Hogwarts. We were wondering if you would like to attend them in person.” Draco knew that Sirius was a godfather of a kid named Harry, he also knew that Sirius never attended any of the boy’s birthdays because of him, but he always sent the boy a gift.

“I don’t know, Lily. Can I bring Draco?”

He watched as the raven-haired man tensed and looked at Sirius with furry. “You will not bring a child of Death Eater into my house.” Sirius took a step back, and Draco felt tears appear in his eyes. He took a step back and almost slipped on the wet pavement, quickly he took hold of one of the figurines that were on the fountain, as he did so his shoe made contact with the pavement, and a loud thud could be heard. When he recovered, Draco noticed that the red-haired woman was looking straight at him, quickly he moved to cover himself more.

“James, that’s enough. Sirius if you want to come you can and you can bring Draco with you. Now, I believe that it’s time to find Harry before we lose him forever.”

The man left with without saying goodbye, while the woman lingered a moment longer. She enveloped Sirius into a hug and went to join her husband.

“You can come out now, Draco.” Slowly, he made his way to Sirius. “I’m sorry that you had to listen to it.” Draco didn’t feel like speaking, he feared that if he opened his mouth now, nothing but sob would come out, so he only shook his head. Next to him, Sirius exhaled and out his hand of Draco’s cheek. “I’m sorry. Come on let’s go buy you some books and then we can get you an owl of your own so that you can write to Jaq.” Draco gave Sirius a small smiled and nodded his head.

“Okay.” His voice was weak, but Sirius pretended to not heave notice is.

“Come on then blondie!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kind messages, I will respond to them later. Also, don't worry I would never get annoyed at any of the comments!! Love y'all <3


	3. Birthday Party, Friendship and an Obvious Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments. I think I managed to answer all of the questions and I hope that the answer satisfies you all.  
> I always answer all the comments, it may take me some time, but I will answer them!  
> Hope you all stay safe and healthy!!

Sirius didn’t know what to do with himself. On one hand, he wanted to go to Harry’s birthday, he didn’t saw the kid for almost 10 years, but on the other hand, he hated how James behaved every time Draco was mentioned.

He struggled with this decision for a week and was pretty sure that he hid it rather well, but when he came down to the kitchen the day before the party and came face to face with Draco, Sirius knew that he didn’t do good enough job.

“Sit, Sirius.” Draco’s voice was serious, and Sirius immediately sat down opposite the 11-year-old kid. “I know that you want to go to your godson birthday.” Sirius held his breath, if Draco told him not to go he would listen to him, but he knew that the blond was too selfless to do it. “You can go, Sirius. If you are waiting for my permission, then you got it. I know that some people will hate me because of my father, but it’s okay.” Sirius hated when the kid behaved older than he should.

When Draco was younger, he tried to put as little expectation as he could on him, but he supposed that Draco remembers when he tried to hide injuries he accurate during his trips to magic areas. He hated that Draco could switch between being a kid and behaving like an adult so easily, in a way Sirius felt as if he let him down.

“I’m sorry.” He didn’t plan to say it so simply, the words just escaped him. Draco looked at him, confusion written all over his face. “You were supposed to be a normal kid when she gave you to me. You were supposed to be happy and have a normal happy childhood, but instead, you had to grow up too soon.” His vision blurred and Sirius knew that he won’t be able to hold back his tears. “I let Narcissa down, didn’t I?” He couldn’t stop the tears that now ran freely down his face.

Sirius felt as Draco wrapped his hands around him and hugged him tightly. “You didn’t let her down, Siri. You couldn’t have predicted people’s reaction, It’s okay. Besides, my childhood was pretty great don’t you remember the charmed tree.” Sirius started to laugh at the comment. “I’m pretty sure that if I was left with Lucius, I would be much worse of.” Sirius wrapped his arms around the blond and hugged him back.

“Thanks, kid! You really are brilliant.”

When he finally composed himself enough and released Draco from the bone-crushing hug, Sirius moved toward the fridge, that they installed right after they moved back to Grimmauld a year ago and after a moment of looking, he found what he was looking for. The small cake was placed on the highest shelf preventing the blond from seeing it, Sirius knew that Draco would like it, but he didn’t manage to buy the snack during their previous visit to Diagon, so he sent Kreacher back to Sugarplum’s for it.

“Here, blondie. I wanted to give it to you after our visit to Diagon, but we didn’t really have time, so Kreacher got it for you.” He smiled seeing Draco’s whole face light up. “It’s chocolate, by the way.” He watched as the blond quickly took the pastry from him.

“Thank you, I need to remember to thank Kreacher.” Sirius smile grew as he imagined Lucius reaction if he ever found out that his son treats house-elves with the same respect that he treats wizards.

-

Sirius put on his leather jacket and looked in the mirror, he looked tired, but besides that, he didn’t change much, maybe his hair was longer. Slowly he walked downstairs to the sitting room, Draco sat on the couch reading his new potion book, while Kreacher was eying suspiciously the cd player that Draco found a week earlier during their shopping trip.

“What do you think, kid?” Draco looked up from his book, and Sirius watched as his face twisted disapprovingly.

“You need to do something with your hair, they cover your eyes.” Sirius frowned, but Draco only smiled seeing the expression. “Come on mister perfect, I can bride it.” He must have done a bad job hiding the mistrust from his face because after a moment the blond added. “Persephone thought me.” At that, he nodded at sat next to the blond

Half an hour later and a perfect fishtail braid later, Sirius was ready for Harry’s birthday. He took some floo powder into his hand and looked back at the bond. “See you two later.” He heard Draco’s “later” and Kreacher’s inaudible grunt, thrown the powder into the fireplace and then he was gone.

When Sirius arrived in the Potter’s cottage, he didn’t expect the number of people in attendance. At first, no one paid attention to him, but after one person that stood the closest to the fireplace identified him as Sirius Black, all eyes were on him. Lily was the first to approach him, after close examination, he determined that her smile was real.

“Sirius, I’m so glad you could make it. Come on Harry’s in his room with Ron and Neville, I’m sure he will be thrilled to see you.” Sirius smiled at her.

“Oh, I’m sure he will be.” He ignored all the glares that people shoot his way as he followed Lilly up the stairs.

Lily stopped next to the second door on the left and knocked two times. The door opened immediately, and a boy with a bird ness for a hair opened the door, a big smile painted on his face.

“Yes, mom?” Sirius could tell that the boy was excited, his whole domineer was vibrating.

“A very special guest is here for you, do you think you can leave Ron and Neville for a moment?” The boy looked at his mom, then his eyes went to Sirius.

Quickly the boy nodded, shouted something into the general direction of his room and stand next to Lily. Sirius smiled when he noticed that Harry started to fidget slightly, a moment later, he decided to put the boy out of his misery.

“Hello, Harry. I’m Sirius, your godfather.” The boy’s face changed into one of pure disbelief, Sirius didn’t know if this was a good thing, but he decided to continue. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to your party for the last 10 years, but I hope that the presents I sent, made up for it.” The boy looked at him then at Lily and back at him.

After a moment, the boy finally managed to say something. “I… hi, I’m Harry.” Lily smiled at her son and moved towards the stairs.

“I’m gonna leave you two alone, have fun.” With that she was gone, leaving Harry and him to talk.

Quickly Sirius broke the awkward silence. “Here I have this for you. I don’t know if you have something like this already.” He gave Harry the present and watched as the boy unwrapped the package. Harry’s face lit up when he saw the gloves and goggles.

“Woah thanks, I destroyed my goggles last week.” The comment made Sirius smile.

“Then I’m glad I bought them for you, the goggles have a water-repelling charm on them, so you don’t have to worry about the rain, and the gloves have a heating charm that prevents your hands from going sift, they can also change colours, so that when you get on your house team, so you can have matching gear.” He smiled seeing Harry’s face light up more and more with every word that left his mouth.

“Are you serious?” He smiled at the boy’s words.

“Oh, Harry I’m always Sirius.” He laughed at the grimace on Harry’s face.

The raven-haired kid ignored his joke and proceeded to ask him another question. “Where did you even found this. I know every article in Quality Quidditch Supplies, and I’m sure that they don’t have gear like this?”

“The French had more than one good idea.” The boy laughed.

“Thank you. Are you going to visit more often?” The hopeful tone of Harry’s voice almost made broke Sirius’ heart.

“I’m planning to if you want me.” Harry’s smile grew bigger, and Sirius smiled at the boy once again.

“I do. We can go see my favourite team, and you can play with me.”

“Sure if your parents allow it. Now go and show your friends what you go and I will find your parents.” He watched as the boy nodded excitingly, then quickly ran back to his room.

Slowly Sirius staled down the stairs, he took a deep calming breath before entering the living room once again. This time people did not turn his way, Sirius felt that they were purposely ignoring him, so he decided to do the same. For a moment, he stood there frozen in place thinking of how Draco differs from Harry, who expresses his emotions so freely, then someone appeared in front of him successfully breaking his train of thoughts. Alice and Frank Longbottom stood in front of him, matching smiles.

“Hello, Sirius. Long time, no see.” Sirius smiled at the two, back when he still was in London he didn’t contact his friend, not wanting them to be condemned with him.

“Hi, how are you two doing?”

“We’re good. I’m a full-time healer that specialises in curse damages.” Started Alice, then Frank continued. “And I managed to finish the Auror training, and I’m currently serving under Moody’s.” Sirius smiled at his friend.

“That’s amazing Alice, congratulations! And Frank I’ve never doubt you. How is little Neville?” His friends face brightened up at the mention of their son.

“Oh, Neville is amazing, a small angel. He is amazing with plants, last week he managed to save a basil plant that I accidentally killed.” Sirius listen to his friends and nodded along to them. Sadly, he noticed that not once did they asked about Draco.

Soon he was left alone once again, slowly he made his way towards what he hoped was the bathroom when he ran into James.

“Oh, so you managed to come. Did you bring the Malfoy spawn?” Sirius felt as his blood turned to ice and the unwelcome mask that was beaten into him in his childhood took over his face.

For a moment Sirius thought that he could see regret in James’ face, but right now he didn’t care. “Draco decided to stay home if you must know.” He wanted to leave, but then he remembered Harrys excited, hopeful face and Sirius made a decision. “Is me spending time with Harry going to be a problem for you?”

“Is the boy going to be there?”

He glared at his ex-friend. “The boy has a name, and its Draco if you forgot. As for your question, I don’t know, it’s his decision.”

Something flickered over James’ face. “I don’t see why you couldn’t spend more time with him, your godson.” They were silent for a moment, then James asked a question that made Sirius’ blood boil. “So are you back from your self-imposed exile?”

He remembered the fights in Hogwarts when he acted before he thought, this time was no different. Sirius didn’t even notice when he walked closer to James and started to laugh. The laugh was cold and hollow, he knew that James never heard it, but others did. “Don’t fucking talk about things you have no idea about.” He tried to compose himself, and after a moment he stepped back. “Tell Lily and Harry that something came up and I had to leave, wouldn’t want to disappoint them.” With that, he turned around and walked to the door.

The air was cold, and no matter how much he fought, the tears won. He managed to walk to down the road when he had to stop and calm himself. He noticed another presence next to him, only when they helped him sit down. He was breathing too quickly, all the reason why he left coming back to him, distantly he heard a voice, but he couldn’t decipher what it was saying. A warm hand touched his wrist, the stranger started to trace the runes on his forearm, he didn’t even notice when his sleeve was pushed up. After a moment he felt his breathing slowing down, and slowly he could recognise the voice.

“Moony?” the man looked at him with concern and Sirius almost recoiled, no one looked at him like that for almost a year.

“Are you okay?” He sounded weird, a little distorted, but Sirius could still hear the concern in his voice.

“Why? Do you also want to know if my self-imposed exile ended?” He didn’t know why, but suddenly the rage he felt came back. “Or maybe you want to ask me how is the mini Death Eater doing? Or will you avoid the topic all together like Frank and Alice? Or better will you become the mediator once again and try to mend the broken man, broken friendship like Lily?” He couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice.

When Remus didn’t answer him, Sirius tried to tug his hand out of Remus’ grasp, but the werewolf only held stronger.

After a moment when all the fight finally left him, Remus realised his hand and looked at him. “Are you okay?” Hearing the question once again made him laugh.

“What do you think?” his voice was hoarse and Sirius hated that they could still make him break so easily, at least his breathing was back to normal.

“I’m sorry.” This took him by surprise, without thinking, he stood up and took a step back from his friends. “Sirius, please listen to me. I’m sorry that I never looked for you, I’m sorry that I left. I'm so-” He felt as his whole body gone rigid, he needed to leave.

“Don’t do it, Remus. Not now.” Slowly back away, but before he could disappear, Remus' voice sounded again.

“When then?” Sirius hated that he could still recognise the distress in the voice. He hated that this still made him stop and consider his next answer.

“I don’t know, maybe when Draco will be at Hogwarts. The kid and I have plans.” After a short pause, he added. “Besides, if you want to meet him, I’m sure that you will be able to find us.” Without looking at his friend, he turned around and apparated back to his home.

\--

Although Draco made his decision the moment he heard the raven-haired boy speak badly about his mother and cousin’s house, and the shopping assistant only made him more convinced that it was a right decision, he was still nervous. He knew that Sirius loved him, but what if it didn’t extend to this, what if he would leave? Back in Britain Sirius had friends that would gladly take him back if he only drooped the mini Death Eater. He hated being called this, but he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the people that did it had a point.

He looked in the mirror and frowned a little, the leather jacket that Persephone sent him the previous week was a little too big, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he will fill it out one day. His hair curled around his ears making him look softer, a little more approachable. He smiled, and upon seeing that the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes it turned into a frowned. He walked to his desk and put his wand in the sleeve of his jacket. After looking in the mirror once again, he quickly walked to the kitchen, where Sirius and Kreacher waited for him with breakfast.

As soon as Sirius saw him a frown appeared on his face, Draco decided to ignore it in favour of taking one of the pancakes and entirely covering it in sugar.

“Did you pack everything?” He nodded and resumed eating.

After a moment of silence, Sirius stood up and whispered something to Kreacher, the house-elf nodded and disappeared leaving only them in the kitchen. Draco could feel Sirius’s eyes on him, slowly he lifted his eyes and look at the man.

“What’s wrong, blondie?” Upon seeing the concern in Sirius’s eyes, Draco broke the eye contact and looked down at his hands.

“Will you still want me if I’m in Slytherin?” His voice sounded tentative and he hated it.

The silence stretched between them, and Draco was afraid of looking up.

Then Sirius exhaled, and he heard his footsteps. The man enveloped him in a hug. “Draco, I only want you to be happy. Being a Slytherin will definitely make it harder for you, but there is nothing wrong with being in the house.” After a moment he hugged Sirius back. “So, are you sure you will be in Slytherin?”

Draco nodded still tightly wrapped in Sirius’s arms. “I want to prove that not everyone in Slytherin is bad, just as not every Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff is good.” He felt as Sirius hugged him tighter

“It’s gonna be hard kid, but I will be with you every step on the way.” He felt as Sirius pulled a little back and rub his finger under Draco’s eyes, he didn’t even notice when he started to cry. “Your mom would be so proud of you kid.” Draco smiled at the mention of his mom. “Now, you need to finish eating. The Hogwarts express won’t wait, even for you.” He laughed and quickly dig back to the meal.

The train station was practically buzzing with people when they arrived, Draco suppressed his shudder at seeing the number of people with big trunks.

“Come on kid, we need to go between platform 9 and 10.” He let Sirius stir him in the direction. When they came to standing in front of a pillar that was situated between platform 9 and 10, Sirius leaned down and pointed at the concrete. “Now, you need to run at it as fast as you can.” Slowly he looked from the pillar to Sirius.

“Do you want to kill me?” The adult started to laugh at him.

“Oh, don’t tell me that you are afraid.” He furrowed his brows and looked back at the concrete wall.

“Fine, but I’m taking you with me.” Quickly he got a hold of Sirius’s hand and ran at the wall. When he didn’t feel any pain when his body hit the wall, Draco looked around. The platform looked like every other platform, the main difference was the train that stood on the track, it was massive, longer than any muggle one.

“See you didn’t die.” Draco gave him one of his unimpressed looks, then turned towards the train. “Come on before it leaves without you.”

When they neared the train, a tall man with slightly greying brown hair, the man smiled at them, but Draco could see the sadness in his green eyes. “Hello, Sirius and I believe that we don’t know each other yet. I’m Remus.” The man held his hand out to Draco.

He looked from the man to Sirius and noticed that the unusual expression on Sirius’s face. Upon close examination, he could tell that it was hopeful, but still a little guarded, he looked back at the man how still didn’t take his hand and slowly took it. “I’m Draco”

The man smiled and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you. Now I believe that you need to get on the train unless you want to be left behind.” Just as the man said this, the whistle of the train sounded on the platform, and Draco quickly hugged Sirius one last time.

“Bye, Siri. Mister Remus.” With that, he got on the train looking back only when he was sure that he won’t be left behind. He noticed that Sirius was talking with the man, his posture was guarded and Draco made a mental note to write to him and ask about the man, a moment later he saw that Sirius nodded and the man smiled, his smile was bright and contagious because a moment later a little smile appeared on Padfoot’s face as well.

He made his way down the corridor looking for an empty compartment or less occupied. Finally, he came across a compartment that was occupied by three persons. As he was about to open the door, he noticed the boy from the robe shop and quickly retracted his hand. Without looking if the people noticed him, Draco walked away. Thankfully, after he walked down a little farther, he found an even less occupied compartment.

He opened the door, and the two girls looked straight at him. “Hello, are you waiting for someone or can I sit with you?” The girls looked at each other and smiled.

“Yeah, we don’t know anyone here, so it’s nice to meet you, em?” He smiled back.

“Draco.”

“Cool name, I’m Hannah.” The blonde girl held out her hand and Draco immediately shook it.

“And I’m Hermione. Nice to meet you Draco.” He nodded at the girl and looked around the compartment.

Noticing an empty seat by the window, Draco took it and turned his eyes to the girls. The brown-haired one, Hermione, held a book. He smiled seeing the tittle. “Did you read  _ the Hobbit _ ?” The girl looked a little startled, but after she recovered Draco saw a smile on her face.

“I have, but I enjoy this one more.” He nodded.

“Yes, this series is one of my favourites.” He noticed that Hannah’s brows furrowed a little, so he turned and addressed to her. “You didn’t read  _ Lord of the Ring _ ?” She shook her head at this and Draco smiled. “If you want I can ask Sirius to send me my copies so that I can lend them to you.”

The girls smiled. “I would like that.”

The train ride was pleasant, the girls were nice and the three of them talk about books for the rest of the journey. Draco actually couldn’t wait to meet other students, but the closer to the school they got the less sure he felt about his decision. He couldn’t help but think that the moment the sorting hat shouts Slytherin, all this will end and that everyone will hate him.

The three of them emerged from the train and Draco immediately felt lost, Sirius only told him about the sorting, they never discussed getting to the castle. After a moment of standing a giant man, Draco remembered Sirius mentioning that he was the gatekeeper that was always nice to him, he remembered Sirius mentioning that his name was Hagrid, called all the first years to himself. He made his way towards him, trying to keep close to Hannah and Hermione.

“Firs’ years, follow me.” After a moment they found themselves near the lake, small boats were everywhere. “Four people in one boat.” Draco watched as small groups started to form, he turned to look for Hannah and Hermione.

The two girls were already in one of the boats when they noticed Draco Hannah waved him over, but before he could come on board, two boys took the place that was saved for him. He smiled when Hermione and Hannah looked at him apologetically. After a moment of searching, Draco found a boat that had only three boys in it, slowly he stalked to the boat and was about to ask if he could sit with them when one of the occupants of the boat looked up and pulled Draco down to the bench.

“Hello, I met you at Madame Malkin this summer, I don’t believe we introduced ourselves. I’m Harry and this are my mates Ron and Neville.” The two boys smiled and waved at him, Draco wanted to relax and be himself, but the words that Harry said at the robe’s shop still haunted him.

“Hullo, I’m Draco.” When he said his name the red-haired boy snickered a laugh. Draco frowned and turned to him. “What’s wrong with my name?”

This reaction must have been exactly what the boy was looking for because he started to laugh louder, Draco turned to leave and find different boat when the giant’s voice sounded again. “Everyone in? Good, Forward.” With that, the boats began to move and Draco was forced to remain in his seat.

Draco noticed that while Harry didn’t comment on his friend’s behaviour, the other boy, who was introduced as Neville, hit the red-head in his arm and told him to stop.

“Sorry mate, it’s just your name sounds so weird.” He felt as his cheeks turned crimson. “Are you a pureblood? They usually have weird names like this.” Draco didn’t want to answer the boy, but after a moment of silence, he decided that maybe it was time to face the issue head-on.

“Why does it matter if I’m a pureblood, a half-blood or a muggle-born, laughing a someone’s name isn’t polite and you shouldn’t do it.” The boy recoiled and looked as if he was smacked.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m just saying that the name Draco is weird.” For a moment, Draco just looked at the boy, he didn’t know what to answer to this, he was not prepared to face an argument like this.

Thankfully the blond boy turned to his friend. “Ron you need to apologize.”

The red-haired boy looked at his friend, his face turning almost the same shade as his hair. “Why?”

Neville looked at his friend and frowned. “You laughed at his name, Ron. I get that your brothers like to joke like this with us, but we are friends with them, you don’t know Draco. You could hurt his feelings.” Draco looked at Neville and almost smiled, but Ron laugh once again, his expression turned into a frown once again.

“Hurt his feeling, is he a girl?” Draco’s frown deepened when the raven-haired boy turned to his friend.

“Ron, stop it. You’ve gone too far.” The boy, Ron, Draco willed himself to remember, looked at Harry then scowled and looked at Draco.

“Yeah, okay. I’m sorry Draco.” He had no doubts that the apology was not sincere, the way his name sounded almost like an insult made him sure of it.

Despite it, Draco looked at Ron and gave him one of his smiles that was too perfect to be real. “It’s okay.”

The rest of the boat rode towards the castle was spend in silence. Draco had eyes almost entirely for the castle that reminded him of gothic novels, he smiled a little thinking about his book collection. He was so lost in his thoughts that if not for the blonde-haired boy that sat next to him, Draco wouldn’t have noticed when the boat neared the shore. He turned to Neville nodded and gave him a small smile, the first real one since entering the boat.

The castle walls looked old, and Draco felt as if he actually became a character in some gothic novel. He was about to look for Hermione and Hannah when he heard their voices in front of them. When he neared the girls, a smile appeared on his face, the two of them were still talking about books. Just as he felt in steps with them and was about to join the conversation, the tall entry door opened and a tall witch in emerald robes stood there. Professor McGonagall, or as Sirius called her ‘Minnie, stood in the entry of the castle and looked at them with sharp eyes.

“Thank you, Hagrid.” The witch looked at the giant and smiled.

“No problem, Professor. I will be seeing you all in there.” With that Hagrid entered the castle.

“Follow me.” The Professor made her way inside the castle and everyone followed. “The feast will begin in a moment, but before all of you will be sorted into a house. There are four houses Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Now I will come back for you in a moment, I trust that during my momentary absence none of you will get any brilliant idea to make trouble.” Draco could swear that her eyes lingered on the raven-haired boy and his friends.

After a moment of silence, students near the back started to shout drawing everyone’s attention to them. After a moment, the source of the commotion made itself be known. Silvery beings appeared in Draco’s field of vision, making people around him gasped in panic. Draco smiled at the ghost that turned and addressed them.

“Oh, you must be the first years?” Draco nodded and the ghost smiled. “I’m Friar, and I hope to see some of you in Hufflepuff.” The ghosts looked towards the door and upon seeing McGonagall’s stern expression, quickly disappeared.

“The sorting ceremony is about to start, form a row of two people and follow me.”

Before he could ask one of the girls to be his pair, Hermione already asked Hannah leaving Draco alone once again. He smiled at Hannah, who turned to him with an apologetic look. When he turned around the only person that stood without a pair was the boy with dark blonde hair from the boat ride, resigned, Draco made his way towards him. As soon as he came to standing, the boy turned to him with a smile.

“I sorry for Ron, sometimes he forgets how to act around new people.” Draco nodded and looked back at the red-haired boy. “So I don’t believe I saw you around the Diagon Alley much.” He knew that the boy was only trying to make small talk, but Draco didn’t want to talk about his life. After he didn’t answer, Neville started fidgeting next to him.

Draco exhaled loudly and turned to him. “Listen I get that you want to be friends, I really do, so I will make you a deal.” He waited as Neville thought it through, after a moment the boy nodded, and a small smile appeared on Draco’s face. “If you still want to be friends after the sorting, I won’t try to push you away.” The boy looked at him a little bewildered, but Draco didn’t bother to offer any explanation.

When they entered the Great Hall, he heard Hermione’s voice explaining to Hannah that the ceiling was bewitched and he smiled imagining how wonderful this must look for someone, who sees this kind of magic for the first time. Their group stopped below the platform on which the teacher table was placed. A single chair with an old looking hat, Sirius referred to it as the sorting hat, placed on it.

When McGonagall came to standing next to the stool, the sorting hat came to life and began to sing. The song contained a brief description of the four houses, instead of listening to it, Draco looked at the teachers' table. A teacher seated at the far end of the table caught his eye, Sirius called him Snape, Draco preferred to form his own opinions, but by the look of the man, he began to believe when Sirius informed him that Sniverus Snape was a total cunt.

McGonagall’s voice brought him back to reality. “When I read your name, you will seat, and the hat will tell you where to go.” Everyone nodded, and the witch took out a long scroll from her left sleeve. “Abbott, Hannah”

Draco watched as the girl quickly made her way to the stool, and the professor placed the hat on her head. He held his breath as the hat loudly shouted. “Hufflepuff.” A noise erupted from the yellow coloured table, and soon Draco smiled and joined the clapping.

After Hannah was sorted it was his turn. “Black, Draco.” Draco heard as a gasp escaped some of the people around him.

Slowly he made his way towards the hat, the people around him let him pass, as if afraid to touch him. When he sat on the chair, and the professor placed the sorting hat on his head, he didn’t expect to hear a voice.

“Interesting, very interesting.” Draco frowned.

‘What is so interesting?’ He though as the hat started to hum.

“You’re plenty clever and loyal, but neither Revenclaw nor Hufflepuff is for you.”

‘Good neither of them are my colours.’ The hat laughed a little at the comment, then came back to the sorting.

“You are brave, oh so brave, but ambition dominates in you. Interesting.” For a moment, the hat was silent, then out of nowhere, it addressed him directly. What do you want, child of two worlds?”

Draco knew what he wanted, but saying it was difficult. He took a deep breath and whispered. “Slytherin”

“Hmm…. How interesting, care to explain?” A small smile appeared on his face.

'It's simple, my ambition will be my downfall. I want to prove that Slytherins are not all bad. I want people to realise that everyone can change.” The hat was silent, and Draco started to fidget under it.

“You are not the first with an ambition to set things right or to make them better, but you are the first that plans to save even the damned.” The hat once again felt silent, but Draco knew that he made a good choice. “Very well, Draco Black, I will remember you as a SLYTHERIN!” Draco let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Draco felt as the hat lifted from his head, for a moment everyone was frozen and looking at him as he slowly made his way to the green table, then some of his new housemates started to clap. As Draco sat at the end of the table no one tried to talk to him. He hoped that someone new will join him soon.

Draco stopped paying attention to the houses, instead choosing to focus more on the names and faces. Till finally, another Slytherin joined him, Millicent Bulstrode, a short, chubby girl with long wavy black hair, the green table started to clap, he noticed that the clapping was not as enthusiastic as the one that came from Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. After a moment Draco heard another familiar name Hermione was sorted in Gryffindor, and he began to wonder if this was the end of their short friendship. Soon McGonagall called for Neville and his friends, he was not surprised when the hat put the three of them in Gryffindor.

When the sorting came to an ending a group of Slytherins gathered around him, the first thing he noticed was the fact that the rest of the new Slytherins didn’t address Millicent. Draco turned to the girl and smiled at her.

“Hello, do you happen to know why are they ignoring you?” For a moment she just looked at him, perhaps she wanted him to feel uncomfortable, then she exhaled a loud breath and looked at him.

“I’m a half-blood.” The words were whispered, and Draco frowned.

“And?” He hoped that it was not disrespectful, he just needed to know.

The girl shook her head and turned to him, a calculating look present on her face. “I’m a half-blood in a house of purebloods, honestly keep up.”

Draco smiled at her. “I do keep up. I just don’t know why it’s such a big deal.” The girl as well as the other first years looked at him with questioning expressions. Draco felt as if some of them wanted to warn him of something, but he wasn’t going to listen to anyone. “Since you are a half-blood did you perhaps read any muggle literature?” He knew that starting every conversation with the topic of books wouldn’t make him popular, but right now he needed his housemate to feel safe.

After a moment of silence, the girl nodded, Draco noticed that some of the older students turned to listen to their conversation. “Did you read to any gothic fiction?” He waited for a reply and after a moment of nothing Millicent once again nodded her head. Draco smiled. “Did you notice that the castle looks very familiar to most of the ones resented in these novels?”

He talked about books for most of the feast, more and more older students glanced his way. Draco smiled when after mentioning  _ Peter Pan _ , Millicent’s entire face lit up. He hoped that some of the students that he met during the train and boat ride as well as the sorting would still want to be friends with a Slytherin. As he was falling asleep, Draco thought about the shopping assistant that felt the need to explain herself to him. He vowed to visit her next summer and do the same thing she did for him, that is let her know that not all Slytherins are bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I thought about this fic and I actually cannot decide if this should be a series or just one long fic, so if any of you have any suggestions I will be very grateful for them!


	4. Talking and the First Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My dads talk in this one. (Yes, by dads I mean wolfstar!)  
> Stay safe and enjoy reading, also wear a mask!!!)

Sirius’s heart was racing, he didn’t expect Remus to actually do it, but here they were. After the Hogwarts’ express left, Remus suggested that the two of them should grab something to eat, Sirius felt as if he once again lost all control over his life.

The small coffee near the King’s Cross station was surprisingly cosy. Sirius didn’t expect for 1st of September to go like this, sure he was prepared for some complications connected with his name, but he was not ready for, as it seems, the permanent reappearance of his friend turned lover turned ex-lover.

“What are we doing here?” Sirius hated that he sounded tired, but he knew that even if he tried he wouldn’t be able to hide it from Remus.

“I figured that someone got to tell you what you missed for the 10 years you were absent.” Sirius scowled.

“I know what was happening. After I met Lilly in France, we never stopped corresponding.” He noticed that for a second there was a pure surprise on Remus’s face then it fell a little, and Sirius immediately felt bad.

“Oh, so I don’t need to tell you that Peter is still at large?” Sirius felt as his anger flared.

“Yes, I’m aware. So is there anything else?” Remus looked to the side then back at him.

“I’ve missed you.” Sirius almost laughed.

“You could have easily found me.” He knew that he was petty, but all the frustration slowly came back to him.

“I wanted, many times and I’m sorry that I never did.” There was a pause during which Remus looked everywhere but at him. “I don’t really have an excuse. I wish I had. All I can say is that when I finally arrive, James refused to tell me anything and Lily was still unconscious. So I stayed, and then you were gone, and I couldn’t forgive myself for leaving you. I wanted to look for you, I even went as far as actually reserving a Portkey, but I couldn’t afford it, and I was scared that even if I found you, you would never forgive me. I let you leave, I fucked up, I thought that you will never come back. I thought that I lost you forever because of my own stupidity and my selfishness. But now you are here, and I will do anything to fix the greatest mistake of my life. I will forever regret not looking for you…” Remus hesitated for a second then added in a tone marked with great determination. “and Draco.” Sirius was taken aback by the confession, he didn’t expect to actually hear any apologies, especially not from Remus.

“I don’t….” He started, but no other words came to him. “Why today?”

Remus was silent for a moment then look straight into Sirius’s eyes. “Draco is part of your life, and if I want to be back in your life I need him to accept me.” Sirius felt hypnotised, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Remus.

“Do you really want to risk James’ anger?”

“I don’t care. James needs to grow up. I think he is just too stubborn to apologise to you.” He smiled a little and shook his head.

“I don’t need his apologies, but Draco does, and I think that the hostility between us will end only when he swallows his pride and admits to his mistakes.” Remus nodded and shot him a small smile.

With all that said the two of them sat in silence and drunk their coffees. After a moment, Remus shifted and looked at Sirius.

“Can I see you again?” He sounded unsure.

Sirius slowly exhaled and locked eyes with the man in front of him. “Remus, I don’t know what you trying to do, but-“ Before he could finish Remus cut him off.

“I know that we most likely won’t be back to how we were 10 years ago. We both changed, but I still want to be your friend, Pad.” Sirius felt as tears gathered in his eyes, the truth is being away from his friends for such a long time hurt, but seeing them again was even worse.

Vaguely he heard a chair scraping the floor of the café, but with the tears blurring his vision he couldn’t really tell if it was Remus’ chair or someone’s else. A familiar scent enveloped him, and Sirius felt as all his reservations melted. He didn’t realise how much he missed Remus, till he once again was held by the man. The familiarity only made Sirius cry harder, he knew that calming down would take a while. He heard as Remus asked for a check and then paid for their coffee. A moment later Sirius felt the cold wind, and he knew that Remus managed to take him outside.

“Pad, I don’t know where to take you.” Even though his tears, Sirius heard the rising panic in Remus’ voice.

He tried to calm himself enough to tell him to take him someplace secluded, but this was bad, and he managed to point his hand in the general direction of an alley. Remus must have understood him because he stirred them towards the place.

When they entered the area between two tall buildings, Sirius tighten his hold on Remus’ arm and apparated them back to Grimmauld Place.

“Sirius!”

He didn’t wait for Remus to shout at him, quickly he detangled himself from the other man and stagger to the bathroom. Quickly he opened the cabinet and took out a bright yellow potion, after two big swings Sirius felt as his breathing came back to normal and his vision cleared. When he looked up Remus was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, confusion was written all over his face.

Slowly he took a deep breath and looked at the man. “Remember when I got panic attacks at Hogwarts?” Remus nodded. “Well turns out, they become worse when you try to ignore instead of treating them. And worrying if some asshole will curse your child just because he is with me or because they know who his real parent is, also didn’t help.”

For a moment Remus looked as if h was horrified, then he shook his head and pointed at the potion that was still in his hand. “And the potion?”

Carefully he put the cork back on the vile. “It helps, Draco found it in one of the potion books. He’s really intrusted in the subject, but then again he is interested in all subjects.” He smiled a little thinking of Draco.

“Okay, do you want me to stay or…?” Remus shifted a little, and Sirius realised that this was the first time that he was at Grimmauld Place.

“You can stay if you want, I’m sure that Kreacher will be happy to have someone new try his food.” Remus looked at him confused, and Sirius thought that he will decline the offer, but a moment later a small smile appeared on his face.

“I will be happy to.”

-

Sirius thought that the dinner would be awkward, but it was actually pleasant. He missed Remus so much, especially during the full moons. He was always anxious during them, even Draco noticed it. When he was 6 even though the kid didn’t understand why Sirius couldn’t sleep during this time, he stayed with him some nights even tried to distract him by playing games or making Sirius read books to the blond.

He watched Remus closely observing every change in the man’s face, he could swear that the scar on his left cheek wasn’t there before. “How did you get the scar?”

Remus looked at him confused. “You know how I got my every scar, Sirius. Did you forget or…?” the man stopped talking when Sirius stood up and walked over to him. Gently he placed his hand on Remus’ left cheek and traced the scar with his hand.

“You never could fool me Remus, so let’s not start now, okay?” He watched as Remus nodded.

The man looked to the side, avoiding Sirius’ eyes. “It happened during the first full moon after you left. James was with Lily and Harry, Pettigrew was a traitor, and I was still too nervous to look for you.” Sirius felt as his legs gave up, he quickly sat at the seat next to Remus.

“I’m sorry.” He felt as Remus shifted next to him and took one of his hand.

“It’s not your fault, it was never your fault, Sirius. Please don’t blame yourself for mistakes that are not your own.”

When he looked at Remus again, Sirius couldn’t hide the distress in his eyes. “I could have done more. I could have stayed.”

Remus just shook his head. “You did enough, Sirius. I’m pretty sure that if you stayed Draco would be much worse of, you gave him a chance.” A little smile appeared on his face at the mention of Draco, he was sure the tomorrow he will get a detailed letter that will describe Draco’s first day at Hogwarts.

“Do you think, they gonna accept him?” He watched as Remus’ face lit up with a smile.

“I’m sure that he will make them accept him.” Sirius’s smile grew at the comment. He knew that Draco was definitely planning exactly that.

\--

Even though the Slytherin common room was located in the dungeon, it looked extremely cosy, the gigantic window with a view into the lake. The walls were decorated with bookshelves and tapestries depicting famous Slytherins, in the middle of the room stood a comfy looking couch, that faced the lit fireplace from which a very inviting warmth was coming. Draco smiled as he observed the small fish that swam behind the glass from time to time.

“Here we are. This is our common room.” Gemma, the Slytherin perfect, didn’t sound enthusiastic, but Draco didn’t blame her most of the times he also couldn’t stand 11-year-olds. “The password changes every two weeks, and it will be written on the notice board. Any questions?” When no one spoke, Gemma smiled. “Good. Boys’ dorms are to the left; girl’s dorms are to the right. If any of you needs a single dorm because of reasons they don’t want to share, please come talk with me.” After that, she left them to their own devices.

Draco and the other boys made their way to their dorm. Upon entering he noticed that it also opened onto the lake, but this window was much smaller and could be covered with an emerald curtain. The beds in the room were randomly assigned to them and Draco smiled once again when he noticed that his bed was the closest to the window, that looked out into the lake.

The five of them made their way to their beds, and Draco noticed that his bed was placed next to Blaise Zabini’s and opposite Theodore Nott’s one. The two boys didn’t seem rude, but Draco knew that first impressions can be misleading, even when it came to him. When he was younger, Draco realised, that people thought that he was cold and unfriendly, but actually, Draco was as from unfriendly as it came. He loved being around people, and his cold domineer melted when he was with his friends, that he knew wouldn’t leave him, that’s why he was such good friend with Jaq, the boy didn’t care that Draco was awkward, or that he preferred to read than watch TV like other boys from school. Thinking about Jaq reminded him of the fact that he promised to write to the boy as soon as possible.

Quickly Draco got out of bed and rummaged through his trunk, looking for his parchment and set of quills. He didn’t hear when one of the boys approached him, but when he turned around holding his supplies, the brown-haired boy stood in front of him.

“You’re a Black?” There was something in his voice that Draco couldn’t decipher, he didn’t like it very much.

“Yes.” His words came out harsh, and he wasn’t really sorry about it.

“What is a member of such a respected pureblood family doing, befriending a half-blood?” Draco’s blood ran cold, and he tried to turn around and walk away from the boy. “Didn’t you hear, I asked you a question.”

Draco looked at the boy, his face set and his eyes cold, he watched as the boy took a step back. “I heard, I just decided that it was a question not worth answering. Honestly, for someone who sees himself as the smartest in the room, you behave really stupidly.” Without waiting for the boy’s response he turned to his bed and closed the curtains.

-

Draco didn’t have time to talk with Hannah, Hermione or Neville, they didn’t avoid him per se, and he knew that all of them needed to get to know people in their dorm, but he couldn’t help but feel like they would leave him. He knew that despite that, he would still have Millie, who actually was very smart and happily shared reading recommendation with Draco.

Their first potion lesson was about to start, and Draco couldn’t hide his excitement, he liked the subject and the precision it required. He knew that Slytherins share this subject with Gryffindors and hoped that maybe he could talk with Hermione after the lesson.

Draco noticed that even though the potion classroom was in the dungeons just like the Slytherin common room was it was definitely colder. Snape looked like someone, who like to be seen as scary, and Draco thought that the colder atmosphere, as well as the decoration of the classroom, helped him achieve that goal.

When the professor walked into the classroom, Draco noticed that his eyes lingered on two people. The first one was Harry, Draco still didn’t know what the big deal was with the boy, as he learned during the first lesson he boy defeated Voldemort, but other than that he was just a boy. The second person was he, Draco didn’t know why but the professor looked at Draco with disgust written on his face.

As the professor started to check the attendance list, he once again paused at his and Harry’s names.

“Here you will learn the art of potion-making, it is as much science as it is magic. But let’s get one thing clear there will be no celebrity worship from my side, so let’s start.” The professor turned to the blackboard and without writing anything spoke again. “Potter, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” Draco watched as Harry’s face turned from one of interest to one of confusion.

After a moment, the boy answer. “I don’t know, sir.”

The professor sneered at him. “Black.” Draco startled as he heard his name and looked at the professor. “What are you waiting for the same question.”

Draco nodded. “The Draught of Living Death.”

Without even acknowledging his response Snape once again turned to Harry. “Potter, where would you look for a bezoar?” This time Harry looked at his friend, who only shook his head.

“I don’t know.” Draco could hear the change in the boy’s face, and he didn’t like it.

“Black!” Draco quickly struggled to remember the detail from their book.

“Stomach of a goat?” Snape’s face twisted into an unpleasant smile.

“Are you asking me Black or answering?” Draco almost flinched at the tone.

“Answering.” This made the professor turn once again to Harry. “Potter, the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?”

This time Harry didn’t even try. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask, Black?” To Draco’s surprise, Harry wasn’t full of hate when he said his name.

“Black!” Draco shifted, he hated being under everyone’s stare.

“There’s no difference.” This answer came to him quick, he remembered it because Sirius read a lot about werewolves and the ways to make their transformations less difficult.

Snape looked at him, still not hiding his disgust. “Correct. Why isn’t the rest of you copying it down?” Snape once again turned his eye to Harry. “Minus 5 points from Gryffindor.” He watched as the rest of the Slytherins turned to Snape, waiting for him to give them points, but the man only continued his lesson.

From that point of the lesson was getting any better, Snape was purposely mean to every single one Gryffindor, and for all his talk about not favouring, he sure did favour Slytherins. Every mistake done by a Slytherin was forgiven, unless you were Draco, somehow Snape managed to judge everything Draco did, even when he knew that it was correct.

After the lesson finally ended, he quickly made his way towards Hermione.

“Hello, how was your first period?” The girl looked at him and shook her head.

“I thought that you were different, but after today I see that you are just like every Slytherin.” Draco cringed and took a step back.

“What do you mean?” The confusion in his voice was real, he didn’t know what he did wrong.

Hermione scowled and crossed her hands over her chest. “You obviously knew the answers.”

Draco was confused. “I read the book, so I remembered them.”

Hermione just looked at him with disgust. “I bet he told you, Slytherins, what would the question be so that you could show off.” She spat the word Slytherin in such a way that Draco took a step back. “You obviously cheated.”

“I didn’t. How would I even know.” There was silence then Draco furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the girl. “If that was true, the Slytherin would get points, but as you can clearly see Snape hates me as much as he hates Harry. The fact that I knew the answer has nothing to do with anything.” Draco watched as Neville came closer and said something to her.

The witch turned around and walked away without acknowledging him or the crowd that gathered around them. For a moment Draco couldn’t move, he stood glued to the floor till Millie came up to him and stirred him to their next lesson.

“I’m sorry, I know that you looked forward to talking to her.” He looked at his shoes and shook himself.

To be frank, he did look forward to talking with Hermione, the girl was smart and seemed nice, but if she really thought that he was a villain, then was being friends with her worth it? Draco snapped himself out of the daze he fell into and found that Millie led him to their next lesson.

“Thank you, I don’t know what I would do without you.” He smiled at the girl.

She only shook her head. “No worries. What are friends for.”

-

Even though the day didn’t go exactly how Draco wanted it to, the weather was pleasant, and he decided that a stroll outside would improve his mode greatly. He didn’t notice when his feet brought him to the edge of the forbidden forest, he would probably march into a tree if not for the big hand that rested on his shoulder holding him in place.

“Careful. You will hurt yourself if you won’t be paying attention.” The voice startled Draco.

Quickly he looked up, Hagrid looked down and smiled at him. “I’m sorry. I got lost in thoughts.”

“It’s alright. Care for a cuppa kido?” Draco didn’t expect the offer, and for a moment he did nothing but stared at the gigantic man. “Or not.” At this, Draco quickly shook himself.

“Sorry, I’m told that I do that a lot. I would love a cuppa.” The smile that lit Hagrid’s face was very contagious, and Draco found himself smiling in an instance.

Hagrid’s hut was very clattered, but Draco could see that the man cared for his home very much. Immediately upon entering the place Hagrid’s dog, Fang, placed himself between Draco’s legs and demanded to petted, he of course happily paid attention to the dog.

“So, you wanna talk about it, kid?” He took the offered teacup and smiled at the man.

“Have you ever tried to fix something that you didn’t even know who broke?” Draco didn’t know where this question was going, but Hagrid looked at him with understanding.

“When I was a student here, there was this classmate of mine, Tom Riddle, real ass if you ask me, but he was smart and usually could get away with anything. I couldn’t.” Hagrid took a deep breath and continued his story. “I always liked magical creatures, Dragons, pixies, nifflers, Acramantulas, you name it I probably know more about them than most books do.” Draco smiled at the mention of magical creatures. “In my third year here I had this pet Acramantula, Aragog, but it was a bad year, someone opened the chamber of secrets and a girl, Myrtle she is a ghost now, I sometimes visit her, died. Riddle accused Aragog and I of attacking students and killing Myrtle, but I didn’t do it, I still don’t know who did.” The story came to an end, and the two of them sat in silence. Just when Draco was about to ask for the rest, the man continued. “I don’t like telling this story, but I can see that you need to talk, so what’s bothering you?” Once again, the fear that people will reject him as soon as they find out who he struck him, but he knew that he owned Hagrid his story since the man shared his story with Draco.

“I don’t think we met, not properly at least. My name is Draco Black, but earlier it was Draco Malfoy, but nobody here knows that, and I would prefer that it stayed that way. At the sorting, Millie told me that I sat on this stool for a long time, that was because the hat let me choose I could go to Gryffindor or Slytherin,” He waited for the accusation, but when it didn’t come he looked up and noticed that all the man’s attention was on him. “I choose Slytherin because I believe that my ambition outweighs my courage. I also choose Slytherin because my mom was there and uncle Regulus, I want to somehow redeem the house, re-educate the ignorant that usually happen to be pureblood and in Slytherin, but I don’t know where to start.” He let all his frustration back into his voice. “I thought that making friends in other houses would be a good idea, but everyone I met started to avoid me because I’m a Slytherin. Even Hermione, and I thought that she would be smarter, but today she accused me of knowing the question Snape was going to ask. The man seems to hate Harry and I for some reason!” He didn’t notice when his breathing started to speed up, till Hagrid gave him another cup of tea.

“Well, I think that a very Gryffindor of you.” The man started to laugh, and a moment later Draco joined him, he could understand why the statement made him laugh, but somehow he agreed. Wanting to change everyone perspective on something demanded courage, Draco hoped that he will have enough of it. “I will support you, and even if no one from other housed will want to be your friend, I will still invite you over for a cuppa.”

Draco smiled at Hagrid, feeling lighter than before this conversation. “Thank you, that means a lot to me. Sirius would be happy that you are my friend.”

At the mention of Sirius’ name, the giants face lit up. “Sirius is back?”

“Oh, did I forgot to mention that he brought me up?” Hagrid looked at him and shook his head.

“Can’t be, you’re too polite.” Draco started to laugh at the comment.

“Well, I think that it’s high time for me to go and start to sham.” He smiled and bid Hagrid good evening.

Draco couldn’t stop smiling during the whole road from Hagrid’s hut to the Slytherin common room. He didn’t care that people were staring at him, he made a friend, someone who he could trust, today. As he walked through the entry of the common room, Draco noticed the eerie silence, all eyes were on Millie, who tried to get her book back from a boy that was a head taller than her. Nott was standing near the boy, encouraging him, and Draco’s blood ran cold.

“What the hell are you two doing?” He didn’t expect that today was going to become even worse.

All eyes were on him, but this time Draco wasn’t going to let this slide.

“Oh, look. Isn’t it the Mudblood loving freak?” Nott’s voice was full of hatred.

“Oh look, isn’t it the insecure pureblood who gets off on insulting others?” Draco was prepared to hear Nott use the m-slur, but it still made his blood run cold.

The boy stiffened and took a step closer to him, Draco was prepared for everything. Nott took out his wand and pointed it at Draco.

“I would be careful if I were you.” Draco smiled as he looked at the wand.

“If I were you, I would have put the wand down before you hurt yourself.” He looked as the boy took a step closer.

Before Nott could react, Draco took a hold of his hand and twisted it, just like Sirius showed him. The boy dropped his wand and started to struggle in his hold.

“If you think that you can abuse muggle-borns or half-bloods in this house, you are mistaken. Do one thing to them or anyone else in this house, and I will break this hand, understood?” He let go of Nott’s hand and watched as the boy fell to the ground.

With that, he went up to the tall boy, who at this point lowered Millicent’s book Draco took it and gave it back to her.

“Are you okay?” The girl looked at him, her eyes were blown wide. She was looking at him as if she saw him for the first time.

“Yeah, I… Thank you.” Draco nodded and started to walk towards the dorm when Gemma appeared in front of him.

“You’re a Black, right?” He looked at her and then slowly nodded, she smiled and ruffled his hair. “It’s good to have someone with your name on our side. If they ever give you or your friend any trouble, go straight to me.” He smiled at the girl.

“Thank you.” The girl took her hand from his hair and let him pass.

When Draco went into the dorm, he noticed that Blaise was sitting on his bed, next to Draco's one, with a book in his hands. When he came closer to he recognised the book. “Are you reading  _ Alice in Wonderland _ ?” He knew that the surprise in his voice was unmistakable.

The dark-skinned boy looked and smiled a little. “It was laying on your nightstand, and I got curious. You know my parents always told me that muggle are so behind, and everything they created is bad, but this book is pretty good.” Draco smiled.

“If you want, I can lend you some other books.” Blaise looked at him with hopeful eyes.

“I would like that.”


	5. Old Friends, a Project and New Perspectives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello,  
> This is the last chapter I will post this year, mostly because my work hours will change and I won't have time to post but don't worry chapter six will be uploaded on the 4th of January if the world doesn't end!  
> Hope you all will have great Holidays and if you aren't celebrating, like me, I hope people won't bother you and that you will have time to catch up with any work, tv show you are watching or book you are reading!  
> Stay safe, wear a mask and remember to drink water!! <3

Once again it happened by accident, Sirius was in the Diagon Alley, looking for something he could send to his friends in France when Lily cornered him outside of the Quidditch shop.

“Hello, Sirius. You didn’t say goodbye at Harry’s birthday” Today the woman had her hair up in a ponytail, loose strands of hair framing her face.

“Lily, sorry about that, something came up.” He smiled back and tried to step to the side.

Lily didn’t budge, she just looked at him with a sadness in her eyes. “I’m sorry for James, as you can see, he never learned when to shut up.” Sirius just nodded and once again tried to escape the awkwardness of this encounter. “I heard you had coffee with Remus the other day.” At this, Sirius stopped trying to get away and looked at her.

“What is this about, Lils?” He really didn’t want to have this conversation.

The fiery woman just crossed her arms and looked him up and down. “Me, you, coffee now.” Sirius looked at her and sighed.

“Chose the place then.” The red-haired woman took his hand and started to lead him through the alley.

Sirius found himself in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, he felt as his face scrunched a little. He didn’t hate the shop per se, but he still remembered when the young witch working on the register refused to sell him ice cream for Draco. He did take the boy to a muggle ice cream shop, but he hated that no one did anything to help him, and Draco was crying harder and harder. He wondered if the woman still worked there or if she managed to find a better job.

Lilly pulled him through the door of the shop, and Sirius almost stopped in his track, the young girl, now, almost, ten years later still worked behind the counter of the shop. Sirius saw the exact moment in which she recognised Lily, then her eyes turned to him and he saw as they grew cold. 

“Morning.” Sirius smiled at the girl despite her hostility.

“Good morning.” The witch turned to Lily, and a brilliant smile lit her face.

“Good morning, Mrs Potter. How can I help you today?” Sirius smiled faltered when the witch decided to ignore him, he wanted to leave.

“My friend and I would like a quiet table in the back.” Lily’s voice was sharp, and he realised that she also noticed the behaviour of the woman.

The woman looked at him barley hiding her disgust and then turned to Lily. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think my boss would be happy if I served the likes of him.” Sirius’ blood turned cold, the image of crying Draco and Walburga telling him that he will never be enough took over his mind.

“I think that I would like to hear it from your employer, not you.” With that Lily took his hand once again and led him to the back of the shop. Before, he could have another panic attack in front of an audience. “Deep breath, Sirius.”

After a moment, the witch appeared next to their table. “What can I get for you?”

Lily immediately turned to her with a glare on her face. “We both would like a coffee and the ice cream cake of the day.” The woman once again zeroed her eyes on him and frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me not to go here?”

He shifted and looked at Lily. “As I said before, it’s not your problem.”

Lily frowned and shook her head. “We are friends Sirius. I don’t want to put you into uncomfortable situations.” Sirius just looked at her. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He wanted to refuse, but truth to be told he never talked about it with anyone, and he still felt like getting this out of his system would help him. “I took Draco here when he was three. The witch that works here now also worked here then. She refused to serve us, and after she screamed at me to leave, Draco started to cry, and I couldn’t calm him down. Some wizard thrown me out of here, I took Draco to muggle shop, but I think that somehow he still remembers this. I’m pretty sure that why Draco tries to be as quiet as he can now.” Sirius knew that his voice turned sad at the end, but he tried so hard for the blond to be happy and he knew that he had failed.

“Oh, Sirius. I’m so sorry. I would have never guessed that they treated you two this badly.” He just shrugged and looked to the side, he didn’t want pity from her.

As Lily was about to say something more, the witch returned with their order. She put the coffees on the table, then placed one slice of the chocolate cake in front of Lily. After that, she turned to him with a fake smile. “I’m very sorry, but we ran out of the chocolate one.” Sirius turned to the display and noticed that the cake was lying next to the strawberry one. When he turned back, the woman was still smiling, he cringed, seeing the fake smile that reminded him of his mother’s one.

He didn’t notice when Lily stood up and marched right behind the counter to the back of the store. A moment later, she came back with a short man, whose entire lower part of the face was covered by an impressive beard and moustache that nicely blended with his hair. Sirius almost smiled seeing his face once again, Florean Fortescue himself took one look at him and immediately came up to him.

“Sirius Black, you old dog! I thought I will never see you again.” He didn’t notice when he stood up and came closer to the man. They hugged, and Sirius instantly lifted Florean above the ground. “The last I heard about you was that awful and untrue rumour that you were a traitor of some kind. Honestly, I’ve never heard anything more idiotic.” When the man finally let go of him, Sirius was actually smiling.

Florean sat down next to Sirius and turned to the witch that watched the two with disbelief. “Delia, would you please give us two chocolate cakes and a coffee for me, I have a lot to talk about.” When the woman left, Florean turned to him and frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me, Sirius? You know that I would do anything for you.”

Sirius smiled at the man. “Honestly, I don’t know, I guess I didn’t want to lose you as I did with James.”

The man smiled and hugged him again. “Stupid, boy. I gave you my words once, I remember you were young, reckless, and you desperately wanted to prove that you were not like your family. I remember the exact day during which you ran away from your mother’s watchful eye and decided to hide in my shop. I remember finding you under a table, you were spotting a really bad black eye and your lip was bleeding. That I’ve decided to never judge a book by its cover or a pureblood buy their family, I gave you my new special ice cream that tasted like happy memories and you smiled and said that you forgot how good it was to be safe.” The man wiped his tears and Sirius didn’t know what to do. “That day I promised myself that I would make sure that you are alright. I watched you grow up and make friends with that Potter boy and the Lupin kid then there was the rat and many others.” Sirius’ mood lifted a little during Florean’s rant, he loved when the men got so worked up. “I don’t know the reason for an argument between you and James, but I know you, Sirius. I have tried my best to make sure that you, and occasionally your brother would survive the summers between school year. Sirius, I know that you are not a bad person and you never were, I get why you didn’t tell me about what happened, but please believe me when I tell you that I wasn’t aware of it. I would have welcomed you with open arms, always.”

Sirius looked at the man, he could feel the tears that gathered in his eye. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, that I finally gave in to my insecurities. How about this, I will come here with Draco during the holiday break? I’m sure that he will be delighted to finally try your famous ice cream.”

Sirius watched as Floreans face lit up. “Oh, so you’re saying that I have less than four months to develop a taste that will swoop the boy away.” Sirius only nodded and smiled at the man. “Well, challenge accepted dear boy, I’m going to prepare the best ice cream to ever exist.”

The two men laughed, after a moment Sirius turned to Lily once again and smiled. The red-haired woman was looking at him with a soft smile. Sirius missed this expression, he gave her one of his warmest smiles and watched as she nodded at him smiling back. Quickly he mouthed ‘thank you’, and once again Florean pulled him into a conversation.

Sirius had to agree, he missed the man and his unique ideas for ice cream flavours but most importantly he missed simply spending time with him. The moments during summer, when the Marauders tried to guess the ingredients of some new complicated flavour, while his mother was doing some shady business in Knockturn Alley. Later, when he met James, the two of them would spend hours in the shop. He looked forward to introducing Draco to Florean.

\--

Draco was looking forward to the Herbology class, he was sure that it would be 100% better, additionally, the Slytherin shared the lesson with Hufflepuffs. He wasn’t expecting for Hannah to interact with him in any way but when professor Sprout ordered them to split into threes, the girl marched up to Millicent and him and firmly planted herself next to him.

“Hello, crazy week right?” Draco turned to her and smiled, he didn’t expect her to talk with him.

“Hello. Yes, it was. By the way, this is Millicent.” He watched as Hannah turned to Millicent and smiled.

“HI, I’m Hannah. Oh my god, I love your shoes.” Millie smiled at Hannah.

“Hello, thank you. My mom got them for me, she bought them while she was in muggle London.” Hannah’s eyes lit up, and immediately the two girls started to talk about muggle London.

Draco felt a little lost because spending most of his childhood in France, he didn’t really know much about muggle London. Watching the two girls interact brought a smile to his face, he knew that interactions between houses are bad but the fact that the two were friendly was amazing.

A moment later Professor Sprout appeared behind then and ordered then to come back to work. At the end of the lesson, he felt as the blond nudged his side. “Do you two want to go to the library?” Draco smiled and turned to Millicent.

“Do you want to go to the library?” Millie smiled and was about to answer when Sprout shushed them again. Millicent glared at the professor then nodded at Draco in affirmation.

Quickly he turned to Hannah smiled and leaned towards her. “Millie is down.” The girl nodded, and the two of them once again turned to the professor.

\--

The trio slowly made their way to the library, Draco wanted to check if the library had any muggle books available. He was sure that Blaise would frequent the library if they had sources to fill his curiosity.

As the three of them enter the library, Draco noticed that people were watching them. At first, he thought that it was weird, but when the staring didn’t stop after they sat down, he realised that the reason for it was the fact that two Slytherins were with a Hufflepuff. Draco frowned and excused himself, he walked through the bookshelves looking for a section that could possibly contain any works from muggle writers. He didn’t expect the school to have a modern book, but he was sure that some classics like Coleridge or Shelley would be here. When after half an hour of looking he came up empty-handed, Draco was about to march up to the librarian when Hannah and Millicent came up to him.

“What took you so long, Draco?” Hannah asked, smiling at him.

Draco exhaled and with a small degree of dramatics put a hand on his heart. “You two cannot do that, I could have had a heart attack.” He heard as Millie snorted at his act, while Hannah only shook her head. “I was looking for any book written by a muggle, but I couldn’t find anything.”

Millie frowned and looked around. “Are you sure, there must be something.”

“Well, I just spend half an hour looking, so I would say I’m pretty sure.” They stood in silence for a moment, then he turned towards the librarian once again. “I was just about to ask her if there were any.” At this, the two girls took his hands and turned him around.

“Don’t you know, this is Madam Pince, she hates students.”

Draco frowned and turned to the woman. “I’m sure that she can’t be that bad.”

The girls slowly released him. “We warned you.” With that the two came back to their table, Draco saw that even though they sat down, they were still looking at him.

He was sure that if the librarian was bad, Sirius would warn him about her, but since he didn’t Draco confidently marched up to the woman.

“Good afternoon, Madam. May I ask you a question?” The witch looked up at him with a frown, Draco shifted a little, but when after a moment the witch nodded he smiled and continued. “I was wondering if there were any muggle book here.”

He watched as the woman’s entire face lit up, quickly the woman stood up. “Follow me.” Without waiting for his response, she made her way down the alleys filled with books. Draco struggled to keep up with the woman. “Here.”

She led him to a small bookshelf that contained little books, Draco frowned and look from the shelf to the librarian. “I’m sorry, but that’s it. You have the bible, some philosophy and a few tomes of poetry. Where are the classics?” Draco could swear that a small, barely-there smile appeared on the librarian's face.

“Unfortunately, this is all that the library has, Mr…” Draco could hear the slight tilt of her voice that indicated that she was asking for his name.

“Draco Black.” After hearing his name, the woman’s face changed, her smile became more honest, more bright.

“Well, Mr Black, I’m well aware that this is not enough to make students interested in muggle literature. I believe that someone that went by the name Sirius also faced this problem. Unfortunately, this school is not interested in providing the library with funds to buy muggle books.” He could hear in her voice that the librarian hated this as much as he did.

After a moment of standing and staring at the bookshelf, an idea stroked him. “What if someone anonymously donated muggle books to the library.” Draco was surprised that Madam Pince’s smile grew even wider.

“If you know someone who can do that then, by all means, please do. It would make me extremely happy if the collection of muggle books could grow.” Draco nodded.

“Thank you, it was very nice meeting you, Madam.” He bowed a little.

The witch laughed. “So polite, you may call me Irma.” HE smiled at the librarian.

“Then I insist you call me Draco, Irma.” The woman laughed once again.

“Very well, Draco. You may also send Sirius my best.”

“I will.” With that, he turned around and walked back to his friends that wore the exact same faced of disbelief.

Just as he sat down, Hannah immediately closed her mouth and glared at him. “What kind of witchcraft did you use.” Draco smiled at her.

“As I was described before, I’m just a polite little shit.” He smiled, watching as his friends frowned.

“Draco I watched as you almost broke Nott’s arm, I don’t think you are polite.”

Immediately Hannah turned to him. “You did what?”

“Well, Nott was being an asshole. He took your book.” AT that Hannah turned to Millicent.

“He did what?” Draco cringed at the fury in her eyes. “Why didn’t you break it?” Draco laughed at the question while Millie looked at the two.

“You two are something else.” Draco smiled at her.

“Are you two ready? Dinner’s in half an hour, and I want to write a letter before it.”

“Yeah, come on.” The three of them exited the library just as Harry and his friends appeared next to the library.

Draco turned to say goodbye to Irma, and as he turned back towards the corridor again, he collided with Harry and landed on the floor. Immediately a hand appeared in his field of vision, he took it without hesitation. When he looked up, Harry was standing in front of his, still holding his hand. Draco flushed and took a step back, Harry’s hand followed his movement for a second then the boy let it go.

Not wanting to make the situation weirder, he tried to justify himself. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“You better be sorry, Slytherin.” Draco frowned and looked towards the owner of the voice. Ron Wesley gave him a nasty look. Draco turned to Harry and noticed that the boy was frowning.

“It wasn’t his fault, Ron.” He gave him an appreciative smile.

“He’s smiling, he probably planned this. I don’t know what your problem is, but you are a pain in my side from the beginning.” Draco frowned and was about to say something when Hannah slapped the red-head.

“How dare you. He did nothing to you, and you are being rude and mean just because he is a Slytherin. That’s really judgmental for a Gryffindor.” With that, the girl took Draco and Millie’s hand and led them both down the corridor.

“I’m sorry for him. Ron is so rude, last time I saw him he made Hermione cry.” Draco’s heart stung a little at the mention of Hermione, but the fact that Ron made her cry called for vengeance.

“No problem, I was kinda expecting it.” The girl frowned and shook her head.

“Never mind that, I will see you both here in half an hour.” The two of them nodded and made their way back to their dorm. The whole way Draco wondered if Hermione was rude to him because she wanted Ron to leave her alone.

\--

Upon entering the common room, Draco made a B-line to his dorm when he got there, Blaise was standing next to his bed with his hands crossed. Draco stopped in his tracks and looked at the boy.

“May I help you?” Blaise looked at him, distraught clearly visible on his face.

Blaise kept him in suspense for a moment longer then let out a long breath and shifted a little. “I need a new book.” Immediately Draco smiled.

“Well, you may be in luck because the library will soon have a lot of them.” Blaise only shook his head.

“Draco I cannot be seen reading muggle books. My parents would kill me.” For a moment Draco was silent, he knew that Blaise was right, some pureblood families were still prejudiced against muggles.

“What if…we charmed the covers?”

The dark-skinned boy watched him for a moment with a frown. “How are you going to do that, it would be advanced charms work.”

Draco smiled. “I read about it somewhere, and I’m sure that professor Flitwick and Irma can help me.” Blaise shifted. “If I do this, will you join me in the library?”

“Lest see if you figure it out first, Black.”

Smiling Draco took out his parchment and quill and exited the dorm. Millicent was already waiting for him in the common room.

“Shall we go?” The girl smiled and nodded.

He followed her out of the Slytherin common room, Hannah was waiting for them by the exit of the dungeon.

“You look happy?” Draco smiled and looked at Hannah.

“I just made a new friend.” Millicent frowned at him.

“When was that. You were gone for 5 minutes.”

“You will find out soon enough.” Hannah laughed at Millicent’s glare, and soon Draco joined her.

When the three of them entered the Great Hall, Draco noticed that a few people looked their way, some even stopped talking. They said goodbye to Hannah and sat at the Slytherin’s table. Draco noticed that some of the Slytherins distanced themselves from them, but when Gemma saw them, she immediately made her way to them.

“Hi, you two. How was your day?” Draco smiled at the girl.

“It was pretty good. I tried to find muggle books in the library.” The girl frowned.

“And how was your search.”

“Pretty uneventful since there aren’t many, but I’m going to change it.”

“You are?” She rose her brow, and Draco smiled.

“Yeah, I already talked with Irma.”

At this, the girl did a double-take. “Wait, you’re friends with Madam Pince. How did you do it?”

“I just asked about some books, I don’t know why you all are so afraid of her. She’s extremely nice.”

“Damn kid, I knew that there was a reason I liked you.” Draco smiled at the comment.

“I thought that it was because of my charm looks and incredible brain.” The older girl started to laugh and shook her hand.

“It’s only the first week, kid. I don’t know how incredible is your brain.” He glared at Millicent, who laughed at the comment.

The rest of the meat was spent in silence, from time to time, somebody asked him to pass something, but other than that everyone was occupied by eating. When the dinner ended, Draco waited for Millie to stand up, when the girl finally did, he quickly joined her. The two of them walked for a while when Millicent finally, turned and addressed him.

“Who is your new friend?” Draco smiled, hearing the interest in her way.

Quickly he looked around to see if someone could overhear them when he didn’t saw anyone, Draco turned to her. “Blaise.”

Millie stopped in her track. “Wait, Zabini?” the surprise in her voice was very noticeable.

“Yeah, that’s the one”

“How, Draco?” He laughed at his friend.

“He likes to read, and I like spending time with people. He seems nice, better than Nott, and he wants to read some muggle literature.”

The girl frowned. “I guess. That’s good that you’re making friends.”

“Thank you. And how are the girls?”

“Oh, don’t worry. I may not be a pureblood, but I still grew up around them, Draco. I know how to take care of myself with them. Besides, you can always help me.”

Draco smiled, hearing the words. “Yeah, I will always try and help you.”

The duo quickly caught up with the rest of their house and Draco stared Millicent towards the seated that look out the big window. He smiled, seeing the small fish and upon closer examination, he discovered that occasionally one could notice a merperson’s tail in the distance. A moment later, a tall boy with long brown hair approached them. Draco never met him, but then again he didn’t really meet many people. The boy stood beside them for a moment, as if battling with himself, then he looked at Draco and their eyes locked. Draco didn’t look away even though the look of the boy’s face was not welcoming, the boy exhaled, and it would seem that he finally came to a decision.

“I’m Barnaby Lee, but please call me Lee.” He smiled at the boy.

“Hullo, I’m Draco, and this is Millicent. Do you need anything?” The boy seemed hesitant, but he didn’t turn around.

“How did you do it?” The question made Draco furrow his eyebrows.

“I’m sorry, do what?” Lee looked around, as if afraid that someone may hear him.

“Stood up for a half-blood, disobey everything that they believe.” Draco smiled at the boy, knowing what he meant.

“I was one of the lucky few that wasn’t moulded by his parents, I had the privilege of being me.” The boy looked at him as if the answer wasn’t satisfactory. “What year are you?”

The boy looked at him, then slowly answered. “7th”

Draco nodded. “Don’t you think it’s high time you start to live for you and not for your parents? I get that they imposed their beliefs onto you, but maybe it’s time for you to start thinking on your own?”

“It’s easier to say than to do.” Draco looked at the boy and smiled a little.

“I know, but you still have time to decide what you want to do.”

The boy looked lost in thought for a moment, then he shook his head and started to walk away. “I guess you’re right. I will see you around.” With that the boy was and Draco turned to Millie.

The girl observed Lee’s for a moment then turned to Draco. “Do you know who this is?” He shook his head in response. “His parents were Death Eaters, from what I heard they weren’t nice. My father doesn’t really speak of them much, but from what I heard, they already planned his whole future.” Draco frowned and shook his head. “Do you think that he will do it or follow in their path?”

He thought for a moment, Draco knew that making choices like that was difficult, even his mother only made one when she deemed it necessary, but he also believed that people can be surprising. “I think that this year is going to be more fun than I thought before.” Millie looked at him and smiled a little.

“You’re very strange, do you know that?” This made him laugh.

“Well, my strangeness just adds up to my awesomeness.” This made Millie laugh in return, and Draco soon joined her.

\--

Draco looked at the letter in his hands, he hoped that Sirius would understand his intentions correctly and won’t just provide the library with a fantasy book. Although he really enjoyed reading them, making the purebloods read about how muggles think magic works may not be very persuading.

Briefly, he wondered what the man was doing and if the man from the train station was with him. Draco still didn’t figure out the connection between the man and Sirius, but he was determined to do it during the holiday break. He was not going to occupy his mind with this now. Especially when the first flying lesson was this week.

Draco enjoyed flying, even though he couldn’t do it much in France, because their neighbours were muggles and Kreacher freaked out when he was flying in the house. He really hoped that nothing bad, he couldn’t wait to see Millie on the broom, besides maybe he could apply for Slytherin team next year. Sirius often told him stories about his time as the Gryffindor chaser, he never spoke about other chasers in the team, but Sirius seemed to enjoy the game and Draco was almost certain that he would too. His eye-hand coordination wasn’t bad, and he was sure that with training, it would be even better.

Draco always felt better and freer when his feet were in the air. The feeling of wind in his hair made him breath better. In the air, he felt that all the expectations that he and the other put on him melt, leaving just him, a boy who wanted to make friends and have fun. In the air, it didn’t matter whether he was a Malfoy or a Black, in the air, he could be himself.

Looking up from the parchment he noticed that all his roommates were asleep, Draco still wasn’t as comfortable with them as he thought he should be, but Draco was sure that in a week or two he would finally fall asleep immediately after getting to bed. After putting the letter on his nightstand, Draco laid down and waited for the sleep to come.


	6. Flying lesson, Visitation and a Duel That Never Was

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello,   
> Welcome back after New Years, hope this one better than the last one (though I must say that I don't have high hopes for that). Stay safe, wear a mask and please drink some fucking water! <3

Draco frowned when Millicent told him that the Slytherins would be having flying lessons with Gryffindors. He didn’t want to have the whole flying lesson destroyed by Ron’s antics. Slowly the two made their way to the Hogwarts grounds he didn’t notice when a third person appeared next to him. If not for the fact that Millicent stopped and took a hold of his hand to stop him. When he looked, Neville stood in front of him, Draco had no clue why the boy would join them instead of his friends.  
“Um, hi.” Draco looked from Neville to Millie, but when he noticed that the girl looked as lost as he did, Draco decided to ask the boy what’s going on.  
“Hi, not that we don’t want you here, but why are you here.” When the boy was silent, Draco shifted a little and looked around. “I mean you have your friends. Is this some prank or something?”  
Neville stopped and shook his head. “No, I’m if this looks suspicious. I just wanted to warn you guys about Ron.”  
This shook to Draco, he wanted to laugh, but instead, he looked straight into the boy’s eyes and asked. “Why?”  
Neville shifted, Draco thought that he looked as if he tried to find the best way to tell them wat’s going on without making his friend sound like a villain. “I don’t know why, but Ron seems to hate you. I just wanted to warn you he seems to be planning something for today.” Slowly Draco nodded and moved to the side.  
“Thanks, now if that’s all.”  
Before he could go Neville stopped him “No, wait. I’m sorry for the situation in front of the library.”  
Draco shook his head. “It’s not you who needs to apologize. Do you need anything else?”  
“Not really, I just thought that maybe I could go with you two to the flying lessons.”  
Draco looked at Millicent, the girl looked Neville up and down, then looked at him and nodded. “You can join us.”  
With that, the three of them slowly made their way outside. When they finally approached the rest of their houses, Neville broke away from them and approached his friends. In the distance, Draco could hear Ron’s voice asking him about them, but Neville just ignored the red-haired boy.  
Madam Hooch arrived, the woman got straight to the point order, them to stand by their broomsticks. Then looking everyone up and down the witch instructed them on what to do next. Some of them were very successful, Draco was among them, just as Harry, Ron, Blaise, Nott and some Gryffindor boy that he didn’t recognise. He smiled, turning to Millie who had trouble with her broom.  
“You need to focus on your intention, just imagine the broom flying up into your hand and it will do just that.” The girl nodded hesitantly and held out her hand once again. Draco watched as she closed her eyes and quietly said up, the broom lifted a little then fell back down. Draco heard laughing from the Gryffindor side but paid no mind to it. “Come on, Millie, imagine the broom and say it louder. I know you can do it.”  
Millicent held her hand out once again and this time said ‘Up’ out loud, the broom listened and the girl caught it in her hand. Immediately she smiled and jumped up, almost losing her grip on the broom.  
“Told you.” The smile grew wider.  
“Yeah, yeah.” When Draco looked around, he noticed that Millie was one of the last one’s that managed the exercise.  
When everyone finally had their broom in hands, Madam Hooch addressed them once again. “Good, mount your brooms and when I blow the whistle, kick the ground hard.”  
Draco and everyone else did as the witch told and when the whistle sounded everyone’s broom lifted from the ground.  
“Now, stay just a few feet over the ground. Very good.” There was silence once again and Draco turned to watch Millie, the girl did really good, and Draco smiled. The peace disappeared when Madam Hooch started to shout. “Mr Longbottom, I said a few feet, please come down.”  
Quickly Draco looked towards the boy, whose broom was rapidly rising in the air. Before and one could do anything the broom started to spin and Neville landed hard on the ground.  
“Mr Longbottom!” The witch quickly ran to the boy and helped him up. “Everyone back to the ground and don’t you dare move till I come back.” The witch left, escorting Neville, who held his right hand close to his body.  
The silence that overtook them suddenly broke when Nott approached the place where the Gryffindor boy landed. The Slytherin bend down and lifted something from the ground.  
“Oh, look the little flyer left his toy.” Nott started to laugh and play with the crystal ball.  
Immediately Draco took a step towards Nott, but Harry was faster.  
“Give it back!” Draco watched as the Slytherin only laughed at the boy.  
“NO, I don’t think I will.” Then he turned to Draco and his smile grew. “Are you going to fight for the Gryffindors too?”  
He took a step towards his fellow Slytherin. “It doesn’t matter who if he is a Slytherin or a Gryffindor. What matters is that you choose to be an asshole and I have a problem with that.”  
The laugh died, and Nott’s face turned sour. “I would think before speaking if I was you, Black.” Without waiting for Draco’s reaction the boy hopped on his broom and pushed himself from the ground. “You two want it, then come and get it.”  
Draco heard Hermione’s voice telling Harry to stay on the ground, but he could also hear Millicent’s voice telling him to kick Nott’s ass. Deciding to go with Millie’s suggestion, he quickly hopped on his broom and started to chase the other Slytherin. A moment later he noticed that Harry was flying towards them from the other side. Draco saw the exact moment when Nott realised Harry’s plan, the Slytherin. The boy quickly dived, Draco managed to follow him, but the Gryffindor wasn’t so lucky and had to stop his broom. A moment later Draco managed to catch up with Nott’s broom and when they were side by side he took the handle of Nott’s broom in his hand. With one move Draco managed to take the ball from the Slytherins hand, quickly he let go of Nott’s broom, but the boy had a different plan. Nott caught his robe and managed started to drag Draco with him before the boy could take the ball back, he turned in his hold and noticed that Harry was starting to catch up with them. He put the ball into his dominant ball and thrown it at the Gryffindor with all his strength. “Harry, catch!” When the ball started on its trajectory Nott released his robes and flew in its direction, but before he caught up with it, the Gryffindor stopped for a second, then flew a little back catching the ball.  
When Draco landed on the ground, Millicent was right next to him. “That was amazing, Draco.” He smiled at the praise and was about to answer her when Nott landed and immediately approached him.  
“You think you’re good. I will destroy you. You, my duel near the tropes.” Before Draco could answer, he noticed another figure quickly making their way towards them.  
After a moment, he noticed that it was Professor McGonagall, and she was furious. “Potter, Black with me. Nott your head of the house, will deal with you.” Before the other Slytherin could do anything, the witch already started to walk away.  
Harry and he quickly rat to catch up with her. The Gryffindor looked a little nervous, Draco was sure that he would also be nervous if McGonagall was his head of the house, but seeing as Snape didn’t really give a shit about him, he felt that nothing bad would happen.  
As the witch crossed the threshold of Hogwarts, the witch turned to them, frowning. “Do you have any explanation for me?” Draco turned to Harry and watched as the boy fidgeted under McGonagall’s stare.  
“Well, Mr Nott was acting like a bully, and someone had to take him down a notch.” The woman’s eyes turned to him, and Draco sated back at her barley hiding his smile.  
“Don’t you think that waiting for a teacher would be a better solution?”  
Just as Draco was about to answer the Gryffindor beat him to it. “If we waited then he would have destroyed Neville’s Remembrall.”  
The witch looked at them for a long time then nodded. “Did you caught it?” At that, the raven-haired boy nodded and held out his hand with the ball to the professor. She took it and turned to him. “And if I saw correctly, you managed to get the ball from Mr Nott and throw it to Mr Potter.” Draco blushed and nodded looking away. “I see. Mr Potter, Mr Black, follow me.”  
With that, the Witch started to walk once again. This time the three of them stopped in front of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. McGonagall knocked on the door and opened the door without waiting for any kind of response.  
“Professor Quiller, could I borrow Mr Wood?” After a moment a tall boy with short brown hair emerged from the classroom.  
The boy immediately addressed his head of the house, not even paying attention to them. “What can I do for you, Professor?”  
Looking closely Draco noticed that a small smile appeared on her face. “I believe that I’ve found you a seeker. Mr Potter, this is your stop. I expect you to be back at Dinner and let’s keep it a secret for now.” With that she turned around and began to walk away, Draco knew that she expected him to follow, so with a small wave, he left the two boys and quickly caught up with McGonagall.  
When they walked far away not to be heard, Professor McGonagall looked at him without stopping and Draco could swear that she was smiling. “How is Sirius?”  
Draco smiled a little at the mention of Sirius’ name. “He’s okay, could be better but I think that he will get there. Told me to call you ‘Minnie.” He couldn’t ignore the smile that appeared on the professor's face when she heard the old nickname.  
“Are you going to do it?” He looked at the witch for a moment, then shook his head.  
“You didn’t give me a reason, yet.” The woman laughed a little and for a moment, Draco wished he was in Gryffindor.  
“I guess I didn’t. I will wait for you to change your mind, Mr Black.” After a moment of silence, he finally looked around and realised that they were going towards the dungeon. Specifically, Snape’s classroom.  
Draco felt discomfort crawling its way down his back, he was sure that the witch would not get him in trouble with his head of the house, but after the disastrous potion lesson, he was also sure that almost everything would get him in trouble with the Potion Professor.  
As if sensing his hesitation McGonagall turned to him and smiled a little. “Don’t worry mister Black I will make sure that you won’t be punished, for your previous actions in any way.” Draco felt as his cheeks reddened at being read so easily.  
Before he could answer the transfiguration Professor already knocked on the door. After a second, the door opened revealing his head of the house. The Professor looked form Professor McGonagall to him, Draco had to suppress a flinch when he noticed the barley hidden hearten in Snape’s eyes.  
Without taking his eyes off of him, Snape addressed McGonagall. “Minerva, what can I help you with?”  
Draco immediately noticed the fake smiled that made its way onto McGonagall’s face. “Well, Severus, I imagine that you would like to have some chance of Quidditch. And I have to admit that I myself have decided to bend some of the rules. You see my new seeker will be mister Potter, and I saw what Mr Black here can do on the broom, I would recommend that you change one of the chasers if you want your team to have any chance.” Draco felt as Snape’s eyes lit up with fury.  
Without saying any other word, the man walked into the classroom, Draco was just about to say something when the Potion Professor emerged with one of the older Slytherins. Not saying anything to Draco or Professor McGonagall, he addressed the boy. “This is your new chaser. I don’t care how you change it. Now if this little meeting is finished, I have a lesson to continue, you two can talk later.”  
Draco stared at the boy for a moment, and a shiver ran down his back when he realized that this was one of the boys that were with Nott while he was pestering Millicent. Quickly he looked at Snape, but the man already made his way back into the classroom leaving Draco alone with the Gryffindor head of the house.  
The corridor was quiet, too quiet and Draco felt that he had to fill it with his voice. “I’m sorry that you had to come here.” The witch looked at him surprised for a moment then smiled.  
“Not to worry Mister Black. Now that this is taken care of I have an important question for you.” He tiled his head, indicating that he is listening, and waited for the witch to continue. “You see, I have an unfinished business with Sirius, and I would love to finally have another chance to talk with him.”  
Draco smiled a little thinking of the face that Sirius would make if his old professor would show up in Grimmauld Place. “If you want to know where he is, I can tell you, but I cannot promise that he will be alone.” He watched as McGonagall rose one of her eyebrows indicating curiosity.  
“I am intrigued, Mr Black. Let’s continue this discussion in my office.” With that, Draco smiled at the Professor and followed her to her classroom.  
He knew that today’s letter to Sirius was going to be worry, but he really didn’t care. Draco felt a moment of pure happiness overtake him, maybe Hogwarts wasn’t going to be as bad as he expected.  
\--  
Sirius expected to spend a quiet evening with books, he was not prepared, for the sound of the doorbell that shattered the fragile peace of the house. He wasn’t also prepared for Kreacher to open the door since the house-elf had the afternoon free, but it seemed that Sirius was in for a surprising afternoon.  
Kreacher entered the office with a sheepishly looking Remus following him. “You have a guest.”  
“Yes, it would appear that I do. But the bigger surprise here is the fact that you were the one to open the door.” The house-elf looked at him with a too-big smile that frankly made his wrinkled face looked frightening. Sirius had to suppress a flinch while looking at Kreacher.  
“Kreacher, promised to rapport to the young master, how you are doing alone in the house.” Sirius could swear that a fond smile appeared on the house-elf’s face.  
He looked at confused Remus and decided to end his suffering. “Well, you can tell the little troublemaker that I’m fine and also that I am not in fact alone.” The old house-elf gave him one last smirk and disappeared. With that Sirius turned to still confused Remus and promptly started to laugh upon seeing the expression on his face. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just your face is priceless. Oh, man this is so good.”  
He watched as Remus’ face turned crimson and the man tried to hide it by burrowing his face further into the burgundy coloured scarf. “I wasn’t expecting you to have such a good relation with Kreacher. If I remember correctly, the last time, we talk you told me that he set your favourite t-shirt on fire.” Sirius grimaced at the unpleasant memory that came back to him with a full force.  
He felt his face turning from the carefree expression to one filled with not only past regret but also with the unpleasant memories. He could see that Remus regretted his comment the moment he made it, but it didn’t really change the fact that he did it. With one fluent movement, Sirius got up from the armrest he was lain on and turned to Remus quickly morphing his expression into something that looked almost happy.  
“So, what brings you here today?” The other man shifted nervously and looked around the room.  
“I was in the neighbourhood, and I remembered that you renovated the place.” For a moment Remus was silent, then he looked at Sirius and their eyes locked. “I guess I was just curious.”  
A small smile made his way back onto Sirius’ face. “Curious?” His voice was playful he felt as if he was back in Gryffindor’s dorm just talking with one of his best friends. Sirius wanted to stay in his mind for a minute longer, but he still had some work to do. “Well, since you here you can actually help me.”  
“Help you? With what?” He almost laughed at Remus’ confused face.  
“Draco asked me to donate some books to Hogwarts.” If the werewolf was trying to suppress his surprise, he didn’t do it well.  
“Donate books to Hogwarts’ library?”  
“Yes, as you may remember from our time at the school, the library doesn’t really have a lot of muggle books. Draco decided to change it.” Sirius knew that his face lit up at the mention of his small trouble maker, but he didn’t care about it. He was proud of the boy. “He wrote me a very moving letter. He spoke with Irma she, even sent me her regards.”  
The confusion cleared a little from Remus’ face. “I always forget that you were friends with her back then.” After a moment of silence, the man turned towards the door and spoke again. “Shall we go to the library?”  
Sirius laughed at the serious tone that Remus’ voice took. Quickly he ran towards the door and led his friend to the library that, thanks to Draco’s obsession with books, was now overflowing with them.  
After two hours, at least two arguments later and a very strong coffee later, the two of them prepared two big stacks of books. Sirius knew that he would have to buy some more copies, but he didn’t mind spending his family money on muggle books. He knew that this could help a lot of students not only in Slytherin but also in every other house. Considering that he had no idea about muggle literature till Lily at the time still Evans hit him with a very heavy copy of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. He fell in love with the book as well as in every aspect of muggle literature. He could still recall reading Frankenstein for the first time and the emotions that didn’t let him put down the book. That’s why he never hesitated to buy Draco books, sure the boy needed to be more social, but Sirius would never take away his books.  
Just as he was about to stand up and stretch, a tapping sound caught his attention. Quickly he made his way to the window and allowed the small black owl to come in. Sirius hated this small creature, sure it was Draco’s and both he and Jaq chose it after they sneak the boy to French wizard street, but the evil creature hated everyone that wasn’t Draco or Jaq. It landed without grace on the comfiest armchair in the room and held out its leg. Carefully, Sirius took out a small treat with he always had on him in case of situations like this and made his way towards the hellish creature. He could feel Remus’ eyes observing him, and it did nothing for his confidence. With one swift motion, he placed the treat in front of the owl and quickly took the letter, just as the creature went for his finger.  
Triumphantly he held out his hand that crouched the letter, in the corner of his eye, he could see that the owl decided to focus on her treat. When he turned around, Remus was looking at him as if he was crazy.  
“This is Draco’s owl. He called it Crowley because of Good Omens, the name fits perfectly because this is a creature from hell. The only two persons that can interact with it are Draco and his friend.” Sirius noticed a small smile on Remus's face he could feel as his face started to heat up.  
“What does Draco wrote?” Sirius looked at Remus a moment longer, after deciding that his tone lack any negativity, he quickly tore the letter open.  
He couldn’t believe what he just read. “Apparently, he just became Slytherin’s chaser, and Harry is going to be Gryffindor seeker.”  
The room was silent for a moment, then Remus furrowed his eyebrows and asked. “Aren’t 1st years not allowed on the quidditch team?”  
“They are not, however, one of the other students stole a remember ball and those two small fuckers decided to get it back.” Sirius startled upon hearing Remus’ laugh.  
The werewolf’s face was red, and Sirius could see tears making their way down his face. “Oh, this is great.” After another moment of laughter, Remus finally regained his composure and turned to him. “First of all, I’m so sorry for McGonagall. Second of all, these seven years are going to be so much pain in your ass, just like it was a pain in James’ parents and my ass. Good luck!”  
This realization made Sirius shivered. “Oh no! This is bad. I wanted him to be cool not to give me a heart attack.” He really didn’t think that the boy who had only one friend his whole life would make his way onto the quidditch team. “He is going to be the death of me, isn’t he?”  
Remus laughed at him again. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that he will be.”  
“I am so proud of him. Both of them.” He smiled at his old friend, or maybe just his friend. He wasn’t sure yet, but he really wanted his friends back.  
\--  
When he made his way out of the boys’ dorm Millicent was waiting for him near the fireplace. Draco made his way to his friend and stilled upon seeing her expression.  
“Where do you think you are going?” Millie was standing she was taller than Draco, so he had to look up to see her face.  
He crossed his arms over his chest and answer. “I know that the duel is a stupid idea, but if I don’t show up he will take it as a reason to pick on us and I’m not going to give him the satisfaction.”  
The girl looked at him for a moment, then exhaled very loudly and moved to stand next to him. “Come on them. If you get in trouble, I get in trouble.” Draco smiled, and with that, the two of them left the Slytherin common room and made their way to the trophy room.  
When they arrived in the corridor, Draco didn’t expect to see four Gryffindors. Harry, Neville, Hermione and surprisingly Wesley stood in the corridor, seemingly waiting for him.  
“What are you doing here?” Draco whispered and hoped that the Gryffindors’ had enough brain to do the same.  
The red-headed boy opened his mouth to answer him, but Millicent quickly moved to cover his mouth. The boy looked furious and, Draco was afraid that he will shout, but Millicent pointed at one of the trophy cases. He looked at it and noticed that a distorted image of Miss Norris just appeared in the glass. Quickly he turned, the cat didn’t appear in the trophy corridor yet, but if they didn’t want to be caught they needed to move quickly.  
Without thinking, he took the closest hands near him and started to run down the corridor towards the stairs, hoping that the three other people had the same idea. Nearing the stairs, he heard another voice. Quickly he paused and pressed his body to the wall, luckily his companions did the same.  
“I was informed that students were out of bed.” Flinched sounded vicious, which made Draco a little afraid of what would happen if the man caught them.  
Draco didn’t dear to breathe he could hear as the man neared their hiding place. Just as he was about to try and ran the opposite direction, Flinch turned and walked to the side. Still holding his breath, Draco moved to see what was happening. Miss Norris stood in front of Flinch, who lowered himself and started to murmur to the cat, the two of them were blocking the stairs that went to the dungeons and Draco wanted to curse them. He knew what he had to do, but the perspective of six students sneaking behind Flinch and Miss Norris didn’t make him happy. He turned to his companions and realized, that the two people he took with him were Millie and Wesley, he wanted to laugh at the redhead's expression, but he couldn’t do it now.  
Draco locked his eyes with Millicent and gestured up with his finger. The girl looked confused, but when Flinch voice got a little higher, she quickly nodded. He crouched and signalled the rest of them to do the same, when all six of his companions were down he stuck his neck over the corner. Flinch was still talking with the cat, not paying any attention to what was happening behind him. Quickly Draco moved to the stairs and crouched behind the railing. Millicent quickly copied him, then went Wesley, Hermione, Neville and finally Harry. When the raven-haired boy was about to climb the stairs Flinch moved to the left, making Miss Norris meow which caused Harry to trip. The sound was enough the man turned around with lightning speed just as Draco stood up and shouted “Scatter.”  
The six of them started to run as fast as they could, Draco didn’t know where they were going. After what seemed like forever, they found themselves in front of a dead end. He could hear Flinch running after then, Draco heard his breathing pick up, he couldn’t think straight. He didn’t notice when Millicent appeared in front of him, she looked concerned, and Draco hated that he was the reason for this. Millicent started to loudly breathe next to him, and he quickly tried to follow her just like he did when Sirius helped him like this.  
When he finally could focus on their surrendering, he noticed that the Gryffindors stood next to them. He could hear Flinch, but the man didn’t appear in the corridor yet. As the noise made by the man became louder, Draco noticed that Hermione was looking at the only door near the dead end. He watched as she neared the door and took her wand out. “Quickly.” She whispered scream making all of them moved to stand at her side.  
“Alohomora.” Draco smiled a little when the lock clicked, and the young witch opened the door.  
He couldn’t hold his awe, and as the door closed behind them, he spoke. “That was awesome.” The girl looked at him with a weird expression and moved closer to the door.  
Draco did the same and listened for Flinch steps, after a moment they heard the man move closer to the end of the corridor, where the dead-end was. Faintly Draco could hear as he murmured to himself, then the man moved back, and the six of them were safe.  
Just as he was about to start laughing a scream filled the room, Draco turned around and noticed a gigantic dog with three legs. He didn’t know who was screaming, but he agreed, quickly Draco grabbed Millie’s hand and moved her neared to the doors. When she moved, he noticed that the dog stood on something made of wood. He filled this information to consider later when he turned around the Gryffindors were already in the corridor, quickly he pulled Millicent with him. The door closed just as the gigantic dog jumped at them.  
Without thinking, he addressed all the people in the corridor. “What the fuck was that?”  
Instead of a real answer to his question, Draco got a face full of red hair. Quickly he moved back, not wanting for anything unpleasant to happen. “This is all your fault.”  
Draco furrowed his brows in confusion. “How is this my fault? I didn’t make you go to that corridor.”  
Before he could react a fist stopped millimetres in front of his face. He shot backwards noticing that it was Harry, who stopped the fist from hitting him. Without saying a word, he stood up and made his way to Millicent, he helped his friend up, and the two of them started to walk toward the beginning of the corridor.  
Just as they were about to leave, he turned to the Gryffindors and addressed the redhead. “Next time you decide to attack me without a good enough reason I will make sure that you cannot use your hand properly for the rest of your life.” He watched the boy’s face closely, almost laughing at the fear that appeared in his eyes. “Now I would recommend that we all go back to our dorms before Flinch decided to come back.” With that, he took Millicent’s hand and guided her back to the common room.  
When they entered the room, he turned to her. “I’m sorry.”  
For a moment she looked confused, then a small smile appeared on her face and the girl started to laugh. “Don’t worry about it. The look on the red-head face at the end was priceless.” He smiled and the two of them made their way to their dorms, hoping that they didn’t wake anyone up.


	7. Halloween, a Troll Attack, Unexpected Visit and a New Friendship?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi,  
> I feel like this chapter has the most complicated scene I've ever written, so I would appreciate it if you commented and told me that it does, in fact, make sense XD  
> Anyway, hope that you like it and that all of you are staying safe and healthy.   
> In the near future, the updates can become a little less frequent because of the exam session in my Uni as well as the fact that I need to write my B.A paper! I may update every two weeks for some time, but I will update. Also, as soon as the exam season ends the regular schedule will be back!!  
> <3

Draco didn’t expect to get a large broom shaped package during breakfast, but he knew that something like this could happen. Sirius was a lot of things, but he was not subtle, the man probably ran to the nearest store the second he got the letter. When he looked to the side he noticed Nott looking at the package with disgust clearly visible on his face, Draco only smiled and turned to Millie. The girl looked at the package, and then at him, smiling a little at the childish excitement that was most likely clearly visible on his face.

Quickly he snatched the package not wanting to bring everyone’s attention to it and motioned to Millicent. The girl understood him without words, she stood up and helped him hide the broom. Just as they were about to leave the table, someone took a hold of the back of his robe.

Upon turning around, Draco recognised the boy that Snape addressed as Flint. Similarly, like yesterday the boy looked at him with a scowl. “Black, you, me Quidditch pitch tomorrow evening.” For a moment, he wondered if the boy can form full sentences but after quick consideration, he decided to just nod, making the teams captain hate him at the first meeting was very unwise.

With that, the two of them quickly made their way to the Slytherin’s common room, where he unpacked the broom and smiled once again. Sirius got him Nimbus Two Thousand, Draco knew how expensive was the broomstick, he always wanted a broom, but he thought that spending so much money on something that he could only use while they were in France, and their cottage was covered with the Disillusionment Charm, was a waste of money, so he never asked Sirius for it. But now holding the heavy object in his hand made him realise how much it meant for him.

“I need to write to him.” He almost hugged the object. “I never realised how much I wanted a broom.”

“You don’t have a broom at home? I thought that you flew regularly with how good you were.” Draco could clearly hear the shock in Millie’s voice.

He only smiled wider and shook his head. “I learned how to fly when I was young, I had a broom for children in France. When it became too small, I decided that I would prefer something that would allow me to play with my friend since he wasn’t the biggest fan of flying. I went to soccer practice, it was nice.” He smiled at the memory of Jaq and him running after a ball. “Now holding it brings back all the memories of the freedom that flying brings with itself.”

The girl hummed next to him, Draco wasn’t sure whether she was agreeing with him or just acknowledging what he said and honestly, he didn’t care. He just wanted to share with someone, and even though he didn’t know Millie for a long time, she was important to him.

“I guess I can see what you mean. The wind in your hair and noting that keeps you chinned.” The two of them were quiet for a moment, then the girl stood up and looked at Draco with horror. “We are going to be late for Transfiguration.”

Draco never moved faster with one loud “Shit” he ran to hide the broom. The two of them quickly made their way towards McGonagall’s classroom, the woman already stood next to her desk. Draco was surprised when she didn’t say anything, only nodded at them and he could swear that the witch was smiling.

Draco couldn’t help the nostalgic atmosphere that always accompanied him on Halloween. Logically he knew that he never met his mother, so really there were no reasons for this, but Sirius once told him that he was allowed to miss her even if he didn’t meet her but somehow Draco still felt like he shouldn’t.

Even though in the morning, Draco thought that today wasn’t going to be like every Halloween, he was wrong. The lesson ended, and he didn’t remember a thing. Millicent didn’t look at him in any weird way, so he must have done everything correctly, but the fact that he didn’t actually know what he did scare him a little. Slowly they made their way to the Great Hall when Hannah appeared right next to him.

“Have you guys heard about Hermione?” Draco furrowed his brown in confusion.

“What about Hermione?” He asked just as they entered the Great Hall.

Not looking at anyone he followed the blond girl. “Apparently Ron was so rude to her that she ran off after their charm lesson and didn’t come back yet.”

He exchanged looks with Millicent, he didn’t like where this conversation was going. Hermione sure behaved like an ass when she told him that he was just like every other Slytherin, not that she had a lot to go on. Frankly, he was surprised that the Gryffindors were fighting, from what he gathered he thought that the four lions were friends. He wanted to pretend that Ron’s behaviour was surprising. Draco knew that the guy was a pain in his ass, what Hannah told them made him realise that the red-head was an ass to everyone. He wondered how someone as nice as Neville could stand the obnoxious boy. Draco suspected that when you grow up with someone, the shit they do makes a lot more sense than when you watch everything from an outsider’s perspective. Still, Draco couldn’t imagine putting up with someone like this, before he became friends with Jaq he hanged around some rich boys from his school. After they started to make fun of people because they looked or dressed differently, he cut all ties with them and never spoke to them again. Ron reminded him of all the assholes that wanted to make other people feel small because of their inferiority complex. He didn’t know why the red-head would thrive on making others feel bad, he wondered if he had some family issues, maybe a lot of siblings.

In his haze, he didn’t even realise when they made their way through the door and right to the Hufflepuff table. He didn’t know if it was Hannah or Millicent that pulled him down to the bench, after a moment, he somehow found himself eating an extremely sweet blueberry muffin. The sweetness made him come back to himself, he looked around and found that almost the entire Great Hall was looking at them. Draco ruffled his hair self-consciously and looked at the two girls for guidance.

“Oh, this is unexpected.” He almost laughed hearing the slight tremor in Millicent’s voice.

He watched as Hannah looked up from her sandwich and almost had to do a double-take when she saw all the eyes. “Are we breaking some kind of rule?”

Draco thought about it for a moment then shook his head. “From what I remember if it’s not a formal feast, then we can sit wherever we want.”

The two girls looked at him for a moment he waited for them to say something and was not surprised when Millicent was the first one to talk.

“Welcome back to the land of the living. Want to talk about it?” He smiled at his friends and shook his head.

“Nah, I’m okay. Today’s just off.” With that, the three of them came back to the previous conversation.

Draco tried to ignore all the stares but today was a really bad day for something like this, he was reminded of the times Sirius would go all tense in crowds, and Draco would have to help him. He tried not to let his eyes wander, but after a moment, his own curiosity got the better of him. He looked towards the Gryffindor’s table and sure enough, the vibrant green eyes were glued to him. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing but besides, being a little judgmental during their first meeting, Harry never actually did anything wrong. Draco supposed that he has no real reason to hate the boy, at least not yet, Harry stopped Wesley from punching him, and that counted.

Instead of overthinking Draco focused on the overly sweet muffin, the taste distracted him from the topic of his mother. When he was younger he would ask Sirius to tell him stories about his mother, but with time the stories turned sour, and he started to avoid the topic. Both Sirius and he became experts at avoiding the painful topic Draco never asked about Sirius’ absent friends, in return, Sirius never reminded him about his mother. They sealed the room with the family tapestry, when they moved back to London, it quickly became a bitter reminder of the past that neither of them wanted to remember.

The lunch break came to an end sooner than Draco wanted it to, Millie and he had to go to Charms, from what Hannah told them the lesson would focus on levitation charm. He always observed Sirius as he performed magic, because of that he could perform almost every spell that Sirius could with his eyes closed. Draco knew that he still had to practice the spells, but he much preferred to do it during his own time. The idea of everyone watching him while he inevitably failed at some kind of spell didn’t sit right with him.

He tried to pay attention during the lesson, but his mind was filled with unpleasant thoughts, he felt watched. The feeling wouldn’t let him focus, a few times he even looked around, but everyone was doing their task. He hoped that this Halloween would be better, he was at Hogwarts, he had friends, but he still filled as if he was drowning.

“Mr Black” Professor Flitwick’s voice startled him out of his thought. He looked at the man and noticed a worried expression on his face. “Would you mind staying after the lesson?” Draco heard a laugh from behind, he remembered that Nott choose to sit there. He ignored the boy’s comment and focused on formulating a response.

“I will be happy to stay.” He smiled and hoped that the expression didn’t look as fake as it felt.

Flitwick only nodded and came back to the rest of the class. Draco ignored the worried look that Millicent shoot him in favour of his feather that he had yet to levitate. With a fluent motion and whispered a spell, the feather moved higher and higher. The rest of the lesson was quiet, and Draco couldn’t wait to get out of the classroom. When the bell finally sounded, he remained in his seat and waited for the rest of his classmates to leave.

A moment after the classroom emptied Flitwick spoke. “Is everything okay, Draco?”

The question threw him off, to be honest, he expected to be yelled at for not paying attention, but this was different. “I’m okay. I’m sorry, I will try to pay attention better next time.”

Flitwick’s face softened at his words. “Mr Black, I know what happened today, I do not expect you to be okay. I only asked because I can only imagine how hard it can be for you, dear boy.” Draco was taken aback by the man, but he quickly tried to cover it up.

No one, but Sirius and his friends, was ever understanding towards him when he got like this. It was good o finally have someone in his corner, even though he wasn’t going to admit to it out loud. “Thank you for the concern, but I’m fine. Can I leave, I’m sure Millie is waiting for me.”

The Professor looked at him for a moment longer then nodded. “Very well, off with you. Enjoy the feast and remember if you ever want to talk about something, my door is always open.”

Quickly he gathered his things and made his way to the door. “I will. Goodbye.”

When he made his way through the door Millicent he was alone, and for the first time that day, he could breathe. The corridor was empty, and Draco was tempted to miss the entire feat in favour of simply staying out in the empty hall. He knew that he would only worry his friends. Reluctantly, he began to walk towards the Great Hall. Draco hoped that the feast would end quickly, the whole day was tiring, and he couldn’t wait for it to end.

Before he could get to the doors of the Great Hall, he heard as they opened with a loud bang. He could hear shouting and quicken his pace.

When he finally neared the entry, Draco recognised Professor’s Quirrel voice. “Troll – in the dungeons.” He stopped in his track, Hermione was in the dungeons.

Without thinking, he started to run towards the bathroom, he could still hear the commotion, but right now all that mattered to him was the girl. He wasn’t worried about being spotted by any Slytherin since they would probably stay in the great hall with the troll being near their dorms.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, a loud noise caught his attention. Turning towards it, he noticed the troll slowly making its way towards the girl’s bathroom. Quickly he plastered himself to the wall and started to move to the room. As quietly as he could Draco opened the door of the bathroom and came inside. The sound of crying was loud, which helped him locate the girls. He knocked on the door and took a step back when they abruptly opened.

Just as he was about to say something, Hermione bit him to it. “What do you want?” Draco heard the venom that she used as she addressed him, but paid it no mind. He grabbed her hand and started to make their way out of the bathroom. “What are you doing? Leave me alone, you Slytherin…” He didn’t let her finish, quickly he planted his hand on her mouth.

He shot her a look that he hoped she interpreted as ‘Shut up or we both gonna die’ and held one finger from his other hand to his lips. Slowly he opened the door and seeing no sign of the troll pulled Hermione outside. Quickly he started to drag the girl towards the staircase when their good luck ran out. The troll appeared right in front of them, and Draco had to drag the girl away from him.

He watched as the creature took a swing with its club successfully hitting the wall and sending pieces of the wall all over the corridor. Draco didn’t realise he was laying on the ground until he felt Hermione’s hands helping him up. Everything was happening too fast and he could feel his breathing picking up. Draco knew that he had to keep his panic under control, looking towards the troll he saw as the creature swung blinds sending pieces of the castle flying everywhere. Suddenly from behind them, someone shouted, he couldn’t focus enough to recognise the person. The troll turned around and seeing an opening Draco took Hermione’s hand and started to run. Just as they were about to run between the troll and wall, the creature swung its club at them. Without thinking, he pushed the Gryffindor, praying that she wouldn’t land on any shard, and jumped back. Draco felt as his ankle twisted painfully, as he landed and immediately crumpled to the ground. He felt the air near his face stir as the club moved centimetres before him. Quickly he started to crawl away from the troll, he could feel his ankle, it was most likely twisted.

He tried to focus on the creature in front of him, but the pain and disorientation made it hard, suddenly shouting made him look towards the staircase. The four Gryffindors were throwing something at the troll successfully keeping it distracted from him. Slowly he picked himself up, and begin to move to them. Draco knew that he needs to get to the four Gryffindors as fast as he could. He saw the exact moment when a rock hit the troll in the eye, the creature let go of its club and brought both his hands towards its face. He stopped in his track, and a plan started to form in his mind, vaguely he could hear shouting coming from the staircase, but he was too focused on his idea.

Draco took out his hand and pointed it at the heavy object. “Wingardium Leviosa.” He watched as the thing lifted from the ground, he stirred it towards the troll, and when the thing, was right above its head, Draco realised the spell. The club landed on the troll’s head with a loud thud, sending the creature toppling to the ground. Draco could hear voices coming closer to him, someone’s hand was on his arm, gently stirring him away from the unconscious troll.

Someone was talking to him, he still couldn’t say whose voice it was, but he could definitely hear someone telling him to breath. Draco wasn’t aware of the fact that his breathing started to pick up more and more. He looked up, and his eyes landed on something green. Someone's hand took his and placed it flat on something that was rhythmically rising and falling, which helped Draco to finally breath more naturally.

When he finally came to Draco realised that beside him and the Gryffindors in the corridor was Professor McGonagall, Quirrel and Snape stood right next to them. Draco felt his face heat up a little at the thought of the three of them seeing him freak out.

Professor McGonagall was the one who broke the silence. “Does someone care to explain to me what happened and why the five of you aren’t in your dormitories?”

Surprisingly it was Hermione who spoke. “It was my fault. I wanted to prove to myself that I could defeat the troll.”

Draco was surprised at her words. He could feel as his eyebrows rose up and still having trouble with comprehending, he looked at his hands and heard himself mumble. “But that’s not what happened.”

When he looked up, all eyes were on him. “Then care to explain to us what happened and why are you here?” Snape’s unpleasant voice made shivers ran Draco’s back.

He took a calming breath and looked at Professor McGonagall instead of his head of the house. “I was late for the feast because professor Flitwick wanted to talk with me after the class, I’m sure that he can confirm it.” Saying that Draco looked his head of house into eyes then focused back on McGonagall. “I heard Professor’s Quirrel shouting about a troll in the dungeon, and I remember that Hannah told Millicent and I that Hermione was upset after one of the lessons and was in the bathroom. I didn’t know if people were aware of this and I knew that she probably didn’t hear about the troll so I came to get her, but the troll must have heard us because when we came out of the bathroom, it came at us.”

The gathered adults looked at him with dumbfounded expressions. Draco briefly wondered why the idea of him telling the truth was so weir then he remembered that Sirius Black was a menace and the two of them were family. Not wanting anyone to throw questions at the Gryffindors, who looked like they wanted to be anywhere but in here, he stood up and promptly winced.

“Also, I think I twisted my ankle.” As he said it, he heard a sharp snort that came from the area where the Gryffindor head of house stood.

“Do you need an escort to Hospital wing, Mr Black?” He smiled at her.

“I would never say no to such a fine company, Professor.” He gave her one of the charming smiles that usually scored him free candy.

“Minerva, this is unacceptable they need to be punished, especially the boy.” Draco glared at the man and was about to say something when McGonagall beat him to it.

“Yes, I agree with you. Miss Granger five points from Gryffindor for lying. Mister Potter, Wesley you each earn Gryffindor five points for looking for Miss Granger and helping her.” She paused and turned towards Draco. “Mister Black, I believe that the injury is enough of a punishment for you.” Quickly he nodded and shifted a little to take his weight off of the injured ankle. “Because of your quick action and promotion of inner house unity, I reward you ten points for Slytherin.” He looked up at the witch with surprise, she just smiled. “Now, I believe that a trip to the hospital wing is in order.” Quickly he nodded and shifted more towards her.

Professor McGonagall held out her hand for Draco. As soon as he came up to her, she started to walk away, leaving his head of the house, professor Quiller and the four Gryffindors behind.

When they neared the hospital wing, she addressed him again. “You truly were brought up by Sirius Black.” She shook her head a little, but Draco could see a small smile on her face. “Twisted ankle and you still don’t know when to keep quiet.”

He smiled at the comment. “You don’t know anything, Professor. When I was younger, around eight or nine, I was really into Tolkien. Have you read any of his books?” He hoped that she did because the Gryffindor head of the house was quickly becoming his favourite Professor.

“I have. Very interesting books.” He smiled at the comment.

“Yes, they are. I loved the idea of Ents, so Sirius charmed one of the trees near the house we were living in. It was amazing, but then I fell and broke my hand. I think Sirius almost had an aneurysm.” He started to laugh seeing how the witch tried to hide the amusement that threatened to take over her face. “The funniest part came when he tried to explain to one of the nurses in the hospital what happened, and I couldn’t stop talking about walking trees because of the painkillers.”

The witch full-on laughed, and Draco smile grew. “I expected nothing else from him. I’m glad you survived your childhood Draco. Now let’s get you inside.” Still smiling, he nodded and followed the witch through the door.

\--

Grimmauld Plae was quiet without Draco, and Sirius hated every second he spent in the house. As much as he hated uninvited guests, Sirius could really use some company. He would probably even welcome his worst enemy into the place just to get rid of the boredom. Just as Sirius thought it, a loud knocking startled him out of his thoughts. He didn’t know who could visit him, the only person that knew where he was living was Remus and as Draco wrote to him ‘Minnie, but it being school night made him doubt that his old head of the house would visit.

Slowly he made his way to the door and opened them. Fiery red hair assaulted his line of vision. He would recognise Lily Evans’ hair, sometimes he wondered if they were magical, just like James’ hazelnut eyes, that came alive in the slightest of light, or Remus’ gentle curls, which framed his face in such a delicate way that always made Sirius go crazy.

“Hello, Lily to what do I owe the pleasure?” The redhead pushed herself off of him, and he saw the desperation in her eyes. “Did something happened, Red?”

For a moment, she said nothing, then she moved past him and into the house. “Both you and my husband are so fucking stubborn. I don’t blame you, I never have. I’m just so frustrated.” Sirius could hear the frustration in Lily’s voice.

He closed the door behind her and turned to address the witch. “Maybe you would like some to drink, I’m pretty sure I have some red, and there should be some white as well. Unless we decide to heavy drink, then I have some bourbon, scotch and whiskey.” He paused seeing the redhead woman raise her eyebrows in concern. “Before you give me a lecture. All of these belonged to my lovely family. I have a whole basement filled with alcohol, though I can’t drink much, doesn’t mix up well with my potions.”

She nodded at him and smile. “Red would be perfect.”

“Right, hold on a second.” He suspected that Lily will pay him a visit sooner rather than later, but he didn’t expect it to start with a bottle of vine.

He retrieved one of his favourite bottles and went back to the living room. Lily stood looking at not so small collection of records that Draco and he gathered over the years.

“I see music taste never changes.” He smiled at the comment.

“Lily not only it never changes, but currently one handsome devil of a kid has acquired the same taste.” He liked the way the two of them jumped right back to bickering

She laughed at the comment, and Sirius almost felt bad about bringing tension back to the conversation.

“Why are you here, Lils?” He let a little of his exhaustion creep into his voice.

Lily looked at him and hesitated a little. “I’m sorry. I know that none of this should be your problem, but can you speak with James?”

Sirius took a step back from the fiery woman and looked to the side. “Why would I do that?”

“Siri I know what you think, but hate you. He’s just stubborn.” He furrowed his brows.

“Lily, I don’t think that would be a good idea.” He felt panic rising inside him. “He may not hate me, but he doesn’t like Draco and if you didn’t notice Draco is a part of my family and I’m not getting rid of him.” He didn’t even notice when Lily came up to him and took a hold of his trembling hands.

“He doesn’t hate Draco. James doesn’t know him, and I’m sure that if he ever met him, he would love the kid.”

“Can you promise me that he won’t scream at him? Draco doesn’t do well with loud noises and possibly violent people.” He looked at Lily and hoped that she would understand. “And currently James is a loud and potentially violent person.”

For a moment, the red-headed woman looked lost in thoughts, then she nodded. “How about this, they won’t meet one on one, you will be with him. You both are invited to spend the Holidays with us, The Longbottoms and The Wesleys. I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

“You would have to invite him yourself. From what I know he wanted to spend holidays in France since we don’t really celebrate, but still, French pastries are better than British. And if he refuses you can’t push him.” She looked a little dejected, but Sirius knew that this was important. Draco was like a cat, you cannot make him do something, and you need to let him come to you. Forcing friendship was never a good idea with the blond. “I’m being serious if he says no, you need to leave him be. If you want him to be okay with you, he needs to be the one to initiate the interaction.”

He watched as the women reluctantly nodded her head. “Okay, but he needs to give me a reason.”

“Lily, what did I just say?”

“That he needs to come to me and I can’t make him. I’m not gonna, I just want to know why not.”

He let out a resigned sigh and moved to open the vine. “You can’t make him tell you, Draco likes to keep his secrets.”

He watched as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Them how do you know if something is bothering him?”

He laughed a little at the question. “Well, it’s not very hard, when he is comfortable with someone he isn’t as good at hiding his feeling as he would want to be. Besides I raised him, I know his every tells and he knows mine.”

Lilly nodded and smiled a little. “I guess you’re right. I sometimes think I know Harry better than he knows himself. Oh, speaking of Harry, he got on Quidditch team. Can you believe it, first-year and already on the team?”

Sirius smiled. “I know.” Lilly looked surprised at his response. “Draco wrote to me. He is going to be Slytherins chaser. I also got an owl from McGonagall. Apparently, she wants to meet with me and curse me in person.”

Lily looked at him puzzled. “And pray tell why, would McGonagall curse you, Draco isn’t even in her house.”

Sirius couldn’t hold his laugh. “Well, for raising such an amazing and handsome troublemaker, of course. Also, from what Draco wrote about his head of the house, I won’t be receiving any news form him.”

The regret of Lily’s face was prominent. “I’m sorry.”

“For what? For being friends with the man when you were little. Don’t be ridiculous, we all make mistakes.” He saw Lily’s face clear a little and smiled at her. “Now come on we got vine to drink and music to listen.”

He purred two glasses of wine and handed one to Lily, who quickly took it, put it on the coffee table and hugged his. He smiled at his friend, he could get used to this again.

\--

“Okay little fry I’m gonna cover the loops, you gonna try and shoot. Got it?” Draco looked at the older boy and slowly nodded. “Great.”

With that, Flint pushed himself from the ground and made his way to the loops. If Draco was honest, he would have to admit that he was still a little shaken after the troll attack from yesterday, but he knew that the other boy didn’t care. With shaking hands, he took the Quaffle out of the case and got on his broom.

He knew that he could do it, but the nervousness that was present within him since yesterday still didn’t leave him.

“Come on, small fry or are you not as good as they want us to think.” He didn’t know what the Flint was talking about, but he was sure that he would find out sooner than later. “We will see if you, muggle loving freak can play pureblood’s game.” Draco frowned at the boy, all doubt and nervousness suddenly gone replaced by rage.

“What do you mean pureblood’s game, even muggles could play Quidditch if they wanted to.” At that, the other boy sneered.

“Why would they do that.”

“To feel free?” the other boy frowned at him.

“Shoot, Muggle lover.” Draco looked at him with fury building behind his eyes.

He looked at Flint and without breaking eyes contact thrown the ball aiming for the lest loop. He watched as Flint quickly positioned himself and moved towards the ball, catching up to it just as it was entering the loop. Draco smiled seeing the expression on Flint’s face.

“Again.” The way in which Flint barked out the order made Draco smile.

This time the boy didn’t look at him, so Draco took his time. He flew away and positioned himself as if he was aiming for the right loop. Approaching the loop, he tried to be as fast as possible, just as he was close enough and Flint moved toward the right, he threw the ball into the middle one. The time slowed, and Draco watched as Flint desperately tried to turn his broom, but he was too late, the ball entered the loop, and he smiled.

“Not bad, Black. Not bad.” Draco looked at him with furrowed eyes. Did he just got played by Flint? “Now we will see how you do during the match.” He could swear that the other boy was smiling at him.


	8. Quidditch and Going Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello,  
> Next chapter will be in 2 weeks time, so I hope you will be patient!!  
> Also, stay safe and hope you all have a wonderful day!!

The day of the match Draco was nervous, he couldn’t stomach breakfast, the mere thought of eating made him want to puke. He tried to signal this to Millicent as she piled his pale high with eggs and toast. He couldn’t even look at it, at some point Hannah came up to them and started to talk about her new favourite book, and suddenly Draco’s attention shifts. He needs to go talk with Flitwick about the books that Sirius send. They already unpacked them and filled at least two bookshelves with muggle books, but the point that Blaise made still stands, purebloods can’t read them if they don’t want their parents to know.

Millicent’s voice breaks his train of thoughts. “Draco, I know this is your thinking face, but right now, you need to eat. I don’t want you fainting on the pitch.” He looked at the plate and back at his friend.

“I’m not hungry.” He watched as Millie shook her head.

“If you don’t eat it I’m not going to listen to any more of your ideas.” Draco brought his hand and placed it over his heart.

“But you love my ideas.” He faked hurt in his voice, hoping that it would make Millicent drop the topic, but the girl wasn’t one for dramatics.

“Only when you eat breakfast.” He looked at the plate once again and frowned. “I will let you live if you eat the toasts.”

He shook his head and looked at her. “Deal.”

With that, he began to eat, a small smile appeared on Millie’s face. Draco was glad that he had such a great friend. Hannah also looked more relaxed when he started to munch on his toasts, and he realised that the girl was trying to distract him from the nerves.

“Thank you ladies, you two are truly the best.”

Hannah smiled at him. “No problem, mon Cheri.” The nickname made Draco laugh more than he was prepared for, the sharp laugh turned into a cough, and soon the two girls had to give his something to drink to calm down.

“Hannah please never do that again. Your accent was awful.” Still laughing, he hugged the two and feeling better, ate the rest of his food.

A sharp whistling sound brought him back to reality when he looked up Flint, and the rest of Slytherin’s team stood at the end of the table. The team captain pointed at him then at the ground in front of him. Quickly Draco stood up and ran to the teen.

“Good luck, Draco.” Without turning around, he held up his thumbs and started to walk after the team.

Draco thought that the morning would be the worst part of the day, but he was gravely mistaken. The worst part was the waiting, the whole team already dressed with brooms, listening for Madam Hooch’s whistle to sound and announce the beginning of the match. Draco felt his nervousness buzzing under his skin, the longer the wait was, the more nervous he became.

“Hey, aren’t you a little short for a second-year?” Draco looked at the boy who spoke and tilted his head.

“I’m not a second-year.” The team looked confused and he wondered why they didn’t know that he was only a first-year.

“Well, then you just a really short third-year. That’s unfortunate.” Draco almost laughed at the comment. Sirius always told him that Blacks are always tall, but somehow he usually ended up the shortest in every room.

“I’m a first-year.” The boy who spoke looked confused and Draco didn’t blame him.

Someone from the back spoke next. “Hey, Flint. Why is a first-year on the team? Isn’t that like illegal or something?”

“Yeah, technically this is not allowed, but Gryffindor also has a first-year on the team. Plus, apparently, the two of them made such a performance that McGonagall was so impressed with it that she didn’t even punish them.” This seemed to satisfy the team, that started to speak among themselves.

“Wait, McGonagall didn’t give you detention?” The same boy from before spoke to him.

“She didn’t see a reason for detention.” He said with a glint of mischievousness.

The boy smiled at him. “Damn, I like you. I’m Terence Higgs and you are?”

He smiled at the boy. “I’m Draco Black, nice to meet you.” Hearing his name, the rest of the team looked at him with calculating gaze.

Terence seemed lost in thoughts. “You are the Draco Black that Nott hates and wants gone?” Draco didn’t know how to answer the question. He didn’t know that Nott hated him so much.

“I guess.” His voice took a defensive tone and he hoped that they wouldn’t use it against him.

To Draco’s surprise, the boy only smiled. “I knew I’m gonna like you. If anyone messes with Draco here, they will have to answer to me, got it?” Terence said the last part a little louder for the whole team to hear, and Draco couldn’t hide the small smile that started to play on his lips.

With a small ‘Thank you’ he turned to the pitch just as Madam Hooch’s whistle sounded. Draco pushed himself off of the ground, and immediately the feeling of freedom overtook him. He loved flying, Sirius would be mad if he discovered that Draco hid the fact because he didn’t want to be more of a burden, he hoped that Siri would forgive him for withholding that particular information.

As soon as the two captains shook hands Draco got lost in the game, he couldn’t believe how easy it was to score the goals. The Gryffindor Keeper seemed to underestimate Draco’s skills and he took full advantage of this. As soon as the teen looked somewhere else, probably to check if his players were doing fine, Draco threw the ball aiming for the farthest loop. Even though he had fun Draco had to admit that the game was dangerous, he tried to be careful but he couldn't avoid some close calls when one of the two redheads on the team send the bulger in his path.

A sharp movement on the other side of the pitch caught his attention, he didn’t know what happened, but somehow Harry’s broom started to behave weird. As fast as his own broom allowed him, Draco made his way to the raven-haired boy. With horror, he noticed that Harry was now only holding the broom with his hands and if the thing shook once again the boy would fall. As he approached the hanging boy, Draco lowered his broom and came to a stop right under him.

“Harry!” He hoped that the raven-haired boy would understand him.

He watched as if in slowed motion as Harry looked down and slowly nodded, then let go of the disobedient broom just as it started to spin in the air. Draco moved the broom u and felt a new weight landing on it. Quickly he stabilised their position and flew a little to the side.

“Are you okay?” He couldn’t see Harry’s face, but from the erratic breathing, that he could fell on his neck, Draco could tell that the boy was shaken.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t really know what happened.” Just as Harry finished speaking his broom stopped spinning and started to fall down.

“Your broom. Hold on tight.” Just as Harry’s hands tighten around Draco’s waist, he took off as fast as the broom let him. “Can you catch it in the air?” He didn’t know if the boy heard him, if not, he hoped that Harry would have a similar idea to his.

“YEAH!” He was surprised when a loud scream came from behind him and the tight hold became looser.

Just as the broom neared the ground, they caught up to it, and Harry let go of him. Draco didn’t know what was happening behind him but the weight behind him diapered and when he looked to the side he saw the raven-haired boy on his own broom flying up. He smiled seeing how free the boy looked.

Suddenly a loud shout brought his attention back to reality. “Black, get your ass back in the game.” When he looked up Flint was looking at him, his expression was unreadable, but Draco could see something aching to amusement or wonder in his eyes.

“Right, sorry.” With that, he quickly started to look for the ball.

Gryffindor’s chaser had it, and Draco quickly made his way to it. He blocked the patch, which the chaser was about to take and was about to reach out for the ball when a loud whistle announced the end of the match. When he looked around, he noticed a group of people on the ground, quickly he made his way to them to see what all the commotion was about. Harry caught the snitch, the Gryffindor stood on the ground the small golden ball held tight in his risen arm. Terence stopped his broom next to Draco’s one.

“You’re so fucking reckless.” He looked at the Slytherin and furrowed his eyebrows.

“What do you mean?” The confusion in his voice was cleared, and Draco watched as Terence shook his head.

“You could have died. If the Potter boy fell from his broom, someone would stop his fall, but if something happened to the two of you simultaneously, I’m sure you wouldn’t be the priority. Where is your Slytherin self-preservation?” Draco didn’t know what to say, was it the truth would the teachers let him fall? Terence must have seen the confusion in his eyes because he sighed and ruffled his hair. “Just never do that again, and I will forgive you.” Draco could only nod his head, not trusting his voice to come out steady.

Flint came up behind them, and Draco almost fell from his broom when his voice startled him. “Come on you two, the match over we’re changing.” Slowly Draco turned around and followed his fellow Slytherins to the changing room. He hoped that a cold shower would help with the panic that slowly started to make its way to the front of his mind.

When he finally emerged from the changing room, Millicent. Hannah and surprisingly Neville, who was accompanied by the three other Gryffindors were waiting for him. Before he could say anything Millicent was next to him, and she looked mad, just as he was about to say sorry she punched him in the arm.

“Ah! What the hell, Millie? That hurt.” He rubbed at his arm, it will probably be bruised tomorrow.

“Draco Black, What the hell were you thinking?” Suddenly the girl enveloped him in a hug, and Draco felt himself melt into it. Before she could step back, another pair of arms wrapped around him, when he looked up he noticed not only Hannah but also Neville.

“I’m fine, though. You don’t have to worry.” Just as he finished speaking Millicent pulled him back and looked straight into his eyes.

“First of all, don’t tell me what to do, Black. Second of all, I will stop worrying when you stop doing stupid shit. You could have died.” He smiled at the girl.

“But I didn’t, besides Flint and Terence already lectured my on endangering my life.” The girl only shook her head which made his smile widen.

As he was about to address the Gryffindors Hannah appeared right in from of him. “I may be a Hufflepuff, but I swear to god and Merlin if you pull something like this one more time I will make sure that you will be grounded till graduation.” He started to laugh at her words.

Through his laughter, he managed to choke out one coherent sentence. “I probably already am.” When he finally composed himself, Draco turned to the Gryffindors. “Why am I the only one that gets lectured.” He pointed at Harry. “He also did something extremely stupid.”

This time Neville answer him. “Oh, he already was lectured. His parents were present on the stand. I’m pretty sure that his mom was about to kill him.” Draco turned to the raven-haired boy who started to rub at his neck.

“I didn’t know that parents could attend.”

Once again, Neville answered him. “Normally they can’t, but Harry’s dad gives a lot of money to the school and they usually have invitations for the first and last game in the season.”

Draco smiled a little that made a lot of sense actually. “Oh, cool.” He turned to Harry and smiled a little more honestly. “Congratulation by the way.”

That must have snapped the boy out of his thoughts because he was in front of Draco in a second. “You are stupidly brave. Do you know that?”

He laughed a little. “Yeah, someone mentioned it to me once or twice before.” The raven-haired boy just looked at him and shook his head.

“Thank you for helping me, you didn’t have to do it.”

“I know that I didn’t, but I much more enjoy watching you alive and uninjured rather than laying on the ground. Besides, it wouldn’t be a fair game without you.”

Before Harry could answer another voice sounded this time it belonged to the obnoxious redhead. “Probably one of your Slytherin friends did it to win the match.” Draco furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the speaking boy.

“Why would they do that, it’s just a game.” The boy huffed loudly in an instance, Harry turned towards his friend.

“Just a game, it’s Quidditch. And we all know that Slytherins will do anything to win.” The redhead sounded pissed, and Draco twisted his face in an angry smile.

“Why would I try to help if it was our plan. Take your head out of your ass and stop being stupid. Merde! I’ve had enough, talk to me when you stop being an ass.” Without looking at anyone’s reaction and before the redhead could reply, Draco started to walk to the castle.

He didn’t know why Wesley decided to hate him, but he had enough of the boy. No matter what he did, he would probably always be guilty of something in the boy’s head. He wondered if he hated him because he knew who was Draco’s real father, would Harry hate him if he also knew. He only noticed that he was already in the castle when someone’s voice brought him back to reality. When Draco looked up, he noticed that professor Flitwick was waving at him from the open door of his classroom.

“Is something bothering you, Mr Black.” He shook his head hoping that it would be enough to rid himself off of the dark clouds that plagued him.

He forced a smile on his face and answered the professor. “No, I’m okay, Professor.”

The short man didn’t look convinced, but Draco didn’t feel like spilling his truth just yet. “Mhm… is there anything you need help with?”

Suddenly he remembered the conversation he had with Blaise, the books were already in the library and from what Irma told him a lot of students actually read them though none of them were from Slytherin. Draco felt almost ashamed, that because of the troll and the Quidditch he forgot about the need for camouflage.

“Actually, I have a question.” The man’s eyes lit up at his words, and Draco’s smile turned more sincere

“What is it, my boy?” The man sounded curious.

“Can I request you not to speak about this with anyone else besides maybe Professor McGonagall?” The charm’s professor looked a little confused but nodded anyway.

“If this is to be confidential I fell that we should speak about this inside.” Draco nodded and made his way inside the classroom. “Tea?”

“Yes, please.” Immediately two cups of tea appeared on the desk. Draco smiled, magic was truly amazing.

“With what do you need my assistance?” The professor sounded serious and Draco smiled at him.

“Do you know that recently the library acquired quite a lot of muggle literature?” When the man nodded, he continued. “You are probably also aware of the way purebloods are often brought up.” When the professor nodded once again, Draco continued. “I know for a fact that there are some of them who aren’t bigots, but if they want to live they have to pretend, so they can’t read these books because someone can tell.”

The confusion cleared from Flitwick’s face and the man smile, somehow the expression on the man’s face looked mischievous. “Oh, I see where you are going with this Mr Black. I also see why you came with this problem to me. Transfiguration of only the book cover would be tricky, but charming it would be much easier. We could do something with ownership, meaning only the person reading the book will know what it is. Yes, Madame Pince would have to practice a little, but I’m sure she would get the spell in no time.” Draco smiled at the man.

“So the spell will act as a form of camouflage. Only the person that will have temporary ownership, meaning the person who decided to borrow the book from the library, will see the actual book. Can the cover be charmed to look like a textbook one?” The professor smiled.

“Oh, that’s a really good idea, but if that would be the case, I’m sure that some of the students would bring books instead of the actual textbooks to the lessons.” Draco smiled at the comment. “But in a way, it would also be a form of education, and if they truly want to learn something, they can always ask later.” The man looked at Draco and nodded. “Very well, I will talk with Madam Pince tomorrow, and we will work out the details.”

“Really, that’s amazing! Thank you very much this means, a lot to me.” The professor smiled and shook his head.

“No, thank you, Mr Black. For a school that promotes equality, the fact that we didn’t provide sufficient muggle literature as well as a way for students to read it is very hypocritical. I’m glad that there are students like you to show us not only the errors of our ways but also the solution.” Draco felts his cheeks grow warm, quickly he brought the teacup up to his face to hide the redness. “Oh, before I forget. Your performance during today’s match was truly breath-taking, but please do not do this again young man.”

With that, Draco drank the rest of his tea, smiled at the charm's professor and started to walk towards the door. “I can’t promise anything, professor. Once again thank you for your help.”

“No problem and really it’s my pleasure!”

Draco smiled and made his way back to the Slytherin's common room in much better spirits. Before he could enter, Draco spotted that Flint stood right next to the entry facing the corridor. When the Slytherin noticed him, he pushed himself off of the wall and walked up to Draco.

“Nott’s people want to gang up on you.” Draco stopped in his tracks and looked at him.

“Why are you telling me this?” He was confused, not only because of the fact that Flint willingly told him of Nott’s plan, but also because he still couldn’t get an accurate read on his team captain.

“I don’t care what you do or believe. You are my chaser, and I have to admit that you are good. I would much prefer it if you were still in one piece by the time we have practice.” With that, the boy left and disappeared into the corridor.

Draco stood unmoving for a moment thinking about what could he do, then he turned around and walked towards the Great Hall. He hoped that Millie or Hannah would be there, he needed to tell them about the books.

\--

Draco sat in the compartment with Millie, Hannah and surprisingly Neville, who chose to sit with them instead of his Gryffindor friends, and Blaise, who came into their compartment saying that he will stay only for a moment and never left. The last boy was reading a book, Draco wondered if it was his real transfiguration textbook or if he decided to take one of the muggle books to his home. He didn’t want to ask and break the still building relationship between them, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the book.

Before he could address the boy, Neville spoke. “Are you really going to read a textbook?” Immediately Draco looked at the Slytherin and noticed that the boy didn’t put the book away.

“Yeah, I will.” Blaise tone of voice was so monotonous that Draco almost started to laugh.

“You must be really interested in Transfiguration.” The Gryffindor continued not fazed by the way Blaise acted.

“Not really.” Having received the answer to his unasked question Draco smiled.

“Then why are you reading this?” Draco could swear that he saw a small smile appear on Blaise’s face.

“Let’s call it professional interest.” He looked at the Gryffindor and watched as he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I don’t understand.” At that Blaise close the book and looked at Neville.

The dark-skinned boy handed the book to Neville and smiled looking at it. “I’m borrowing it to you thus making you its temporary owner.” Draco watched as Neville took the book and looked at the cover. His face changed from confusion to surprise to understanding.

“Oh, that’s a neat trick. How did you do it?” Blaise smiled and looked at Draco.

“Ask the blond sitting in front of you.” Neville turned to him, and Draco felt as his cheeks reddened.

“What’d you do, Draco?” The boy asked and handed the book back to Blaise.

Draco looked down and started to play with his hands. “Nothing much, I just talked with Flitwick and he came up with the idea. I just wanted people to read some muggle literature. I basically grew up with it. I’ve read Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice so many times that I have it basically memorised. Muggles don’t have magic that’s why their literature is better, they don’t have to follow rules and laws. Instead, they can create their own way of looking at magic. Reading about how muggles think magic works is fascinating, plus the romances are much more interesting when you don’t have to worry about love potions interfering.” He looked up and noticed that all four of the occupants of the compartment were looking at him.

After a moment of silence, Millie elbowed him in the ribs and started to laugh. “Shit, Draco, you really are a nerd.” He scoffed at his friend.

“Shut up. I’m cool, and shit. Didn’t you see my leather jacket?” Hannah started to laugh at his response, and soon all of them were laughing, even Blaise decided to join their conversation. Draco smiled looking at his friends, he could get used to being with them.

King’s Cross came too soon, one moment the five of them were joking about Quirrell's weird garlic smell, then the whistle of the train announced that they’ve arrived on their destination. On one hand, he was excited, Sirius promised they will spend Holidays in France, and as much as he corresponded with Jaq he missed talking with the boy more. One the other hand, he really didn’t want to leave his current friends. Additionally, the thought that Sirius will definitely ground him because of the troll and Quidditch almost made him stay at school. He hated being grounded, Sirius usually came up with the weirdest punishments. One time Sirius didn’t allow him to read for a week because Draco, not so accidentally, told his teacher to fuck off after she insisted that he cheated on one of his tests.

He expected Sirius to wait for him in some corner or somewhere far away from the crowds. Instead, the man stood in the centre of the crowd, arms crossed over his chest and an expression that Draco only saw once and never wanted to see again.

“Shit, I’m dead.” As soon as Draco saw that Sirius noticed him and started to walk towards him, he ducked behind Millicent hiding as much of himself as he could.

“What the hell, Draco?” The girl sounded amused and Draco was sure that she wouldn’t help him hide for long.

Before he could run for his safety, Sirius’ voice sounded on the platform. “Draco Regulus Black!” He stopped in his tracks and watched as Millicent stepped to the side. “You are so grounded.”

Millicent turned to him with a smile. “You’re on your own, Draco dear.” Without another word she started to walk towards her dad, pausing only for a moment, when Sirius got closer to her. “Hello, Mr Black. I’m Millicent, Draco’s friend please ground him forever so he doesn’t do anything stupid during the break.”

Draco watched as Sirius smiled at her and nodded. “Oh, don’t worry I am planning to hopefully ground him forever.” The girl nodded and ran off.

At that Draco, turned to Sirius. “You can’t ground me forever. I promised Jaq that I will take him shopping.” Sirius turned to him with an unimpressed expression.

“If I was you, I would stay quiet.” Draco almost laughed at the fake fury in Sirius’ voice.

“You can’t silence me.” At that Sirius’ entire posture changed and the man started to laugh.

With two quick steps, Sirius made his way to Draco and enveloped him in the tightest hug that he ever received. “Kid, I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you.”

Quickly he wrapped his hands around Sirius’ waist and smiled. “I’m fine. Nothing happened.”

“I know, just never do something like this again. Promise me, Draco?” With that Sirius pulled away and looked at Draco.

“I promise that I will never do anything that may endanger me.” He heard as Sirius breathed a sigh of relief and hugged him again.

“Okay, let’s say I believe you. Now come on Lily wants to talk to you.” Draco frowned at the name but followed Sirius nonetheless.

“Wait, Lily as in Lily Potter? Why would she want to talk to me about?” Sirius looked at him and smiled.

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out. Just remember you can say yes and you don’t have to give her a reason, okay?” Draco nodded and looked around, the station was still full of people. He could see a family of ginger-haired people and wondered if they were related to the redheaded bone of his existence.

When he turned to Sirius he came face to face with a tall woman with fiery hair, he remembered her from the Diagon Alley.

He woman immediately came up to him with a smile. “Hello, I’m Lilly and I wanted to ask if you want to spend Christmas with us?” He did a double-take and stared at the woman with a shocked expression.

He could hear Sirius’ groan coming from next to him. “Lily, you could have handled this better.”

Before Lily could say anything more, he asked. “Em… who are us?”

She smiled at him and answered. “Oh right. Me, my husband, Harry and his friends plus their families.” Harry and his friends, if Draco was correct, that meant that Wesley would be present during the dinner.

He shifted a little and looked at Sirius, he knew that the man probably wanted to spend more time with his friends. Draco didn’t want to hold him back, but the thought of spending a prolonged period of time in the same room with the redhead sounded like a thing from his nightmares.

He looked from Sirius’ unreadable to Lily’s hopeful one. “I’m sorry, but I would prefer to stay in France, but I’m sure that Sirius would be happy to join you.” Seeing the hopefulness melt form Lily’s face made him uneasy. He wanted the floor to swallow him whole.

“Oh, I…” The woman started but paused. “Well, that’s okay. Maybe some other time.” She said, and the smile reappeared on her face. “By the way, thanks for helping Harry during the match and the troll.” At the mention of the troll, Draco looked at Sirius, who immediately tensed and looked at him disapprovingly.

“I almost forgot about this, you’ve got hurt.” Draco lowered his head for a moment.

“It wasn’t that bad.” He heard Sirius sight, then he was hugged one again.

“I know Minnie wrote to me, apparently, she likes you enough to pay me a visit and convince me not to go to Hogwarts and make a scene during breakfast.” Draco looked up and smiled.

“She’s great I don’t know why you call her mean. Oh, before I forget Irma and Hagrid say hi.” Sirius looked at him and started to laugh.

“She told you, you can call her by her first name. Unbelievable, even I couldn’t do that.”

“What can I say except I’m better.” At that Sirius just shook his head.

A loud laugh startled the two of them, and Draco looked for the source of it and noticed that it was Lily. “Damn, you are a fun parent. I have to go, I will leave a place for you two on the table if you change your mind, no pressure of course.” The fiery woman hugged Sirius, then she turned to him with a smile. “I like you. Don’t let Harry drag you into anything stupid.” She hugged him and walked to the exit.

Draco turned to Sirius, who was looking at the retrieving woman. “That was weird.”

Sirius just laughed at the comment. “That’s Lily for you. Come on kiddo, I have someone I want to introduce to you before we go home.”

\--

“Are you sure we can be here?” Sirius smiled at the blond boy.

He ruffled his hear and laughed at the whine that came out if his mouth. “Yeah, Draco. I promise we can.”

When they walked through the door, Florean immediately appeared next to them. “Draco this is Florean, Florean this is Draco.” The man shook Draco’s hand.

“Hello, hello. It’s so nice to meet you. Come I have a flavour made specifically for you.” Sirius watched as Draco was led to the counted. Florean quickly scooped the ice cream into a cone and handed it to the blond. “What do you think?”

Draco tasted the ice cream, and a smile appeared on his face. “This is amazing.”

Sirius smiled and approached the counter. “Blondie you testing the stuff that dreams are made of.” The boy looked confused, and Sirius decided to turn the name of the flavour around.

“You made ice cream that taste like dreams. That’s amazing.” Sirius smiled, hearing the excitement in Draco’s voice, he loved when the boy let loose and got lost in his chilliness.

“Sure did, I also have nightmare taste, they were created by accident.”

Sirius love watching as Draco changed from quietness to excitement. Immediately all his barriers melted and the boy could ask a million questions a minute. Sirius sat down next to the boy knowing, that this would take at least an hour for the boy to tire up. He hoped that Kreacher cooked something other than cake for Draco’s return.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any questions about this fic just ask and I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities.


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